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 Sperlongano
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.
