The things some people will do for a good story

A dip in the canal from the Guardian

Estimating OSM UK Coverage

I've been playing around with an extract of the OSM data to compare the length of roads that have been plotted with the statistics on road lengths published by the Department for Transport. The DfT publishes figures for each local authority, and recently people have been adding a lot of local government boundaries to OSM. So it has become possible to compare the two.

I still can't make this work for all local authorities. That's partly because the data is incomplete, and partly because of mistakes in the way I have collated the data. However, thanks to help from the Talk-GB list, I am begining to get plausible figures for quite a lot of England and some bits of Wales.

It's an interesting exercise - I am learning a lot about Postgresql databases and the Postgis extensions. I haven't finished. There is still work needed to plug the gaps and improve the accuracy, and better examples to aspire to, like this. But I thought an initial view might be timely, even though it is incomplete.

Anyone who hasn't booked their holidays yet can already see that there is work needed on the map in Cornwall, and quite a bit in Cumbria, Northumberland and Norfolk. And Bracknell.

Seer Green revisited

It's been a demanding week, so I just wanted a straightforward ride this afternoon. Nothing too ambitious.

I settled on riding to Seer Green, to plug the gaps remaining in OSM.

Last time I went there was about a month ago. At the time I mapped quite a lot of the village, but I missed a few bits. Today I think I have plugged most of the gaps - at least as far as capturing the road system, which is my main interest.

More importantly I had a really good ride out and back. The weather was quite warm, but not unbearable. I know the roads reasonably well, and I managed to stay on fairly quiet lanes, except for mucking up badly near Beaconsfield, and ending up negotiating a major roundabout on a junction of the M40.

This time, like last, I covered just over 30 miles. As a result, once again, the next gap on the map is now just a litlle bit further away.

Bike lane violations

The examples posted here are getting increasingly absurd, but they are certaibly amusing.

I have no right to quibble, but it might be worth adding that the real problem is one of quantity. Highlighting amusing examples makes an effective point, and is certainly entertaining, but slightly misses the mark.

Red and blue ears

On my train journey back from Winchester I used the Virgin cross-country train. I needed to get a ticket for the bike. Which was a bit of a pain, for me and those behind me in the queue - but no matter.

Also there was some confusion about where bikes are supposed to go (coach F if there is no buffet cart, and coach D if there is, apparently). But that's still not the most important issue.

What really puzzles me is why most of the seats on one side of the carriage have a blue ear, and most on the other have a red ear?

I did wonder if this was so that the directionally challenged knew which way the train was travelling, but then I noticed a few seats at the end with the ears the other way round, so it can't be that.

Perhaps it's a way of segregating passengers to avoid political arguments. All the Telegraph readers on one side, and Guardian readers on the other. Is it significant that several of the passengers with blue ears are bald?

Swithun's revenge

It was Saint Swithun's day on Wednesday. Legend says that if it rains on St Swithun's day it will rain for 40 days.

St Swithun's day if thou dost rain

For forty days it will remain

St Swithun's day if thou be fair

For forty days 'twill rain no more

It did rain on St Swithun's day this year, but the forecast for today was OK. So it seemed appropriate to celebrate with a ride to Winchester, where Swithun was bishop from 852-862, and where he is buried.

It was quite a long ride out (63 miles) and I caught the train back. Until about 15 miles from Winchester the weather was OK, but for the last hour it rained steadily, which put a bit of a damper on what had previously been a lovely day.

I've now managed to figure out quite a pleasant route from home to Beech Hill, avoiding the busy areas around Wokingham and Reading. From there I picked up National Cycle Route 23, which took me through Basingstoke to Alresford. All very pleasant, and NCR23 weaves quite a clever route through Basingstoke, but it was a particularly enjoyable ride from south of Basingstoke to near Alresford.

But by then, the tradition of Swithun had come true, and the weather turned from sunny to very wet. So in the end I just took the direct route from Alresford into Winchester. Despite cutting things shorter than planned I still arrived much later than I had intended. I decided not to look around Winchester in the rain. I like the place, but if I had wanted to visit there would have been easier and quicker ways to get there.

Most of my route is already plotted on OSM, but I've traced a few short sections which will fill gaps. But the real point of the day was the ride, which I thoroughly enjoyed. A shame about St Swithun though.

New bar ends

Today I rode out to the local bike shop and bought new bar ends. I fitted them when I got home, and I've tried them out briefly. They seem pretty good, but it will take a long ride to see how they really work out.

I like the lizards though.