OSM Data for Routing - From Tags to Routing & Mobility Analysis

Room: Talks I

Sunday, 11:30
Duration: 40 minutes (plus Q&A)

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University of Heidelberg, Faculty for Geoinformation Sciences

Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology (HeiGIT) Website

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  • Julian Psotta

How does OpenStreetMap data as a collection of nodes, ways, and relations with tags like highway=*, access=* become the fast, turn-by-turn navigation and routing you see and use every day, including on openstreetmap.org?

And what else can you build and do with such a Routing Network?

This beginner-friendly deep-dive unpacks the tag-to-routing network process* and compares today’s most prominent open-source routing engines (OSRM, GraphHopper, Valhalla, openrouteservice). On the example of openrouteservice we will show how currently 180,000 users, from governments to humanitarian responders, **turn raw OSM data into meaningful mobility analysis using directions, isochrones and vehicle-route optimisation and how your contribution helps them do this.

To round up the talk, we will focus on current trends for routing engines and look at two forthcoming and noteworthy developments in the openrouteservice ecosystem, that aim to mitigate climate and humanitarian related challenges.

OpenStreetMap is the planet’s most detailed open-data street network. But how does a crowdsourced collection of nodes, ways, and relations become a routable Routing Network that you see on e.g. openstreetmap.org, and what can you do with it, once it has been built?

This session takes newcomers and intermediates on a step-by-step journey to OSM-based mobility analysis:

  • Tags → Routing Network: Understand which OSM-data and tags like highway=*, access=* are used for routing and how they influence e.g. turn-restrictions, speed estimations or surface data.
  • OSM-Community Impact: Understand how your OSM edits and contributions can influence and enhance routing and mobility analysis.
  • Engines & Algorithms: A beginner-friendly look at today’s open routing engines (OSRM, GraphHopper, Valhalla, openrouteservice) and the algorithms they implement.
  • Mobility Analysis in Action: Using insights from 180 000 openrouteservice users, we explore real-world cases from governments, social institutions and humanitarian organisations and learn how they use OSM to support their communities and goals.

-> What comes next?

At the end of the talk, we will briefly explore the current trends in routing engines and look into two specific and noteworthy developments from openrouteservice:

  • Current trends: What can we expect from open-source and OSM based routing engines next?
  • Graphs-on-demand: High-quality graphs for openrouteservice, downloaded in minutes, bringing independent, unlimited and privacy-aware mobility analysis. Reduce your preprocessing time, storage, and energy usage and use pre-computed routing networks for any place on earth.
  • Dynamic-data optimisation: Learn about new routing algorithm research from HeiGIT that allows the ingestion of field data to reroute critical humanitarian deliveries in near-real-time.

By the end of this talk, you will have a more profound understanding of what open-source routing is. You will understand how your involvement in OSM, mapping, and associated activities impact and enhance the success of thousands that use mobility analysis with OSM every day.