Baltimore, Maryland

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Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Wikidata

latitude: 39.2947, longitude: -76.604
Browse map of Baltimore 39°17′40.92″ N, 76°36′14.40″ W
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Panoramic view of the Baltimore Inner Harbor and Harbor Point waterfront development as seen from the Domino Sugar factory.
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Baltimore is a city in Maryland, United States at latitude 39°17′40.92″ North, longitude 76°36′14.40″ West.

Mapping objectives

To add more points-of-interest to the city map as well as tackle areas that still need mapping.

  • Road Verification
    • Look at the resources section for a link to the City's site where they have data on proper street names and locations.
  • Adding Alleys
    • There are many thousands of small alleys throughout the city, many of which are not mapped, or are mapped incorrectly by way of TIGER
  • Bus Routes
  • School Verification
    • Public Schools: The Baltimore City public school system closed many failing schools and all of the (grade 6-8) middle schools (combined mostly with elementary which are now K-8).  Some names of the schools remaining open change frequently as they enter into various public-private or charter school partnerships.  These need to be field-checked as they may have changed since 2000.  For in-City public schools tag "operator=Baltimore City Public Schools".  Schools in other Maryland jurisdictions are all administered at the county level; there are no town or township operated school districts in Maryland.  They should be tagged "operator=[county] County Public Schools.
    • Private Schools: The Baltimore area is home to many private schools.  Some of the Catholic schools, both in Baltimore City and County have consolidated or closed, leaving unused school buildings; these need to be confirmed as still operational, and if so, under what name.  Always ensure that the operator=* tag is entered with the appropriate entity.  For Catholic schools tag "operator=Archdiocese of Baltimore". Other private schools are not affiliated with any larger entity which have different operator=* tags.
  • Building outlines
  • Neighborhood Polygons
  • ZIP Codes
  • Addressing
  • Speed Limits The majority of Baltimore streets are not tagged with maxspeed=*. The goal is to verify speed limits already tagged, then proceed to add speeds to untagged streets. The dataset used for this project is the Next Generation 911 (NG911) Street Centerlines file from data.baltimorecity.gov. Spot checking shows that speed limits for residential/unclassified streets is generally accurate, but outliers like university campus streets in Homewood or the ring road around Mondawmin Mall are incorrect. Ergo, tagging of untagged ways will avoid privately-owned/managed streets. This project was discussed on OSMUS Slack.
Baltimore City Hall

Local Tagging Notes

Tagging in Baltimore should follow the universal OSM tagging specifications found on this wiki. The sections below details special cases of note to Baltimore.

Alley Streets

Alley streets (see Tag:service=alley#Alley_Streets) are a road classification unique to Baltimore, Maryland, USA[1]. Alley streets are alleys by definition, i.e., they serve the rear of buildings, but are named. Most named alley streets have addresses assigned to them, often small homes or carriage-houses that have been converted into homes. Alley streets may have sidewalks but they are small and designed to house trash cans or steps down from homes. Alley streets do not typically have on-street parking, which distinguishes them from residential streets.

Communication

Local mappers have established a Slack channel to discuss issues and interesting things on the map in Baltimore and throughout the state of Maryland. The channel is hosted on the OpenStreetMap US Slack, in the #maryland channel. Join the Slack here


Social

There was a MapTime group in the Baltimore area, Maptime Bmore.

Events

Previous Mapping parties

  • Saturday, July 12, 2014 starting in or near the Patterson Park pagoda at 11 a.m. (Edit on day of event: Rain location looks like it won't be needed, since it's beautiful out. If it gets stormy before noon, check back here for a fallback location.) If you have a netbook (or even better, a netbook and a data plan to which wifi connections can be tethered), we encourage you to bring it, as we'll be working in pairs of two and staying mostly in pretty docile neighborhoods. That said, if you're not comfortable walking around Baltimore with a laptop, that is understandable, and we'll certainly be happy to let you gather data on paper, then enter it elsewhere after the fact. If you choose to bring technology, we will have you sign a waiver acknowledging the basics of urban life (i.e., some possibility of crime). Contact person: BaltiMapper. --ElliottPlack (talk) 13:59, 2 May 2014 (UTC)
  • May 30, 2009 The French Press Cafe
  • May 31, 2009 Red Emmas, 800 St. Paul St
  • Apr 2009 at Red Emmas [1]

Mapping Resources