Quincy Morgan

Quincy Morgan

@waysidemapping.org

OpenStreetMap pro. Folk traveler. NYC. Building open source geospatial software. Thinking about trains and wild places. 🦬🗺️🛤️🌾⛰️🛶🤙 https://waysidemapping.org

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Quincy Morgan
@waysidemapping.org

If you like these icons, they are all available in my new map icon library, Pinhead! bsky.app/profile/ways...

Quincy Morgan@waysidemapping.org

Just released: Pinhead Map Icons I was tired of digging through different sources to find good map icons, so I compiled all the public domain sources I could find into one unified set. You’ll see familiar faces from the likes of iD, OSM Carto, and NPS, plus some new additions. Enjoy! pinhead.ink

pinhead.inkPinhead Map IconsQuality public domain icons for your map pins
Quincy Morgan
@waysidemapping.org

Recently had some fun micromapping Pillar Falls in Idaho's Snake River Canyon. Featuring dramatic basalt pillars, this falls runs over exposed bedrock much of the year (intermittent=yes in OpenStreetMap terms). This makes for a popular local hangout spot and an interesting place to map

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Quincy Morgan
@waysidemapping.org

Prior to my custom designs, many similar features in iD were represented by identical icons. This is confusing. I tried to give each feature a unique, descriptive icon to highlight the differences between them.

Quincy Morgan
@waysidemapping.org

If you've ever edited OSM, you've seen icons like these but probably haven't thought much about them. In fact, these icons are key to helping mappers understand the connection between OSM data and real-world objects.

Quincy Morgan
@waysidemapping.org

OSM is full of jargon that beginners shouldn't be expected to know. Icons can give mappers confidence that they're using the right tags, particularly if the app isn't well translated into their language.

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Quincy Morgan
@waysidemapping.org

To complete the import, I wrote a series of open source scripts to fetch and conflate USGS data into OSM. These can be re-run at any time to keep the data in sync without overwriting hand-mapped data

Quincy Morgan
@waysidemapping.org

Following the import, OSM mappers immediately started improving the gages' locations, which could be off by as much as few hundreds yards. In effect, OpenStreetMap now has more accurate geometry for USGS monitoring stations than does USGS :)

Quincy Morgan
@waysidemapping.org

USGS's streamgages provide critical public data about the state of our lakes and rivers. They're also used by paddlers to plan safe, enjoyable trips. Mapping them accurately in OpenStreetMap allows any app using OSM to easily incorporate gage information

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Quincy Morgan
@waysidemapping.org

Kudos to the Jordan River Commission for spearheading development of this water trail in the last few years. Good access points and clear portages around barriers invite even the most novice paddlers to experience the water. The river is rare in that most of it can even be paddled upstream.

Quincy Morgan
@waysidemapping.org

However, the Jordan River suffers from severe water diversions that lower the river level at the expense of ecology and float-ability. Parts of the river can rarely be paddled. Hopefully the water trail will increase awareness of water issues in the Salt Lake Valley.

Quincy Morgan
@waysidemapping.org

Saddened to hear about the destruction of the Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim last month. I was lucky to visit in July 2021, four years and five days before it burned down. I happened to snap a few offhand shots of the structure, now available in the public domain over on Wikimedia Commons.

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