Highway shields! Expressways! This talk introduces the OpenStreetMap “Americana” project, which aims to build an American map style, complete with the features that North American users expect to see on their maps.
We’ll explore the techniques involved in rendering highway shields and the challenges involved in rendering an attractive highway network given the quirks and complexities of the American highway system. On the implementation side, we’ll show how we’re implementing an American style on a vector-tile software stack using the OpenMapTiles schema, MapLibre, and ordinary Javascript. Lastly, we’ll highlight some of the future possibilities that a vector-based American map style can enable.
Speaker
Brian is a map hobbyist from North Kingstown, Rhode Island. He is an avid runner and hiker and enjoys mapping trails, protected areas, land cover and boundaries. His hobby projects include OpenStreetMap Americana, a public domain American-themed community map style, and StreetFerret, a tool for runners trying to run every street in their city.
More info
Hop in, OpenStreetMap is taking a road trip! The Americana map style celebrates the cartographic traditions of paper highway maps in the United States, while driving forward open source vector tile technology. It’s the map designed by and for the US community.
