Benches is an iOS app that uses Open Street Map (OSM). This talk at #GeoMob London (January 2016) explained how we implemented it, why, some results, etc.

1. Benches
from evolutive.co
January 2016, London GeoMob
Carles Pina - carles@pina.cat
Carles Estevadeordal

2. 2/21
Today...
● What is benches
● Why have we done benches?
● Micromapping, OSM bench amenity
● How is it done?

3. 3/21
What's Benches
● iOS app (evolutive.co, a friend who does apps)
● Also available for Android!
● Shows your location
● And shows nearby benches
– and toilets
– and drinking water fountains

4. 4/21

5. 5/21

6. 6/21

7. 7/21
Users can add benches,
fountains, toilets and POIs with
their own description.
At the moment we don't
automatically upload user POIs to
OSM:
● We need to double check OSM
licensing issues (users don't
have OSM account)
● We are afraid that users don't
understand that this is publically
available (and they might just
test...)
We would like to collaborate more
with OSM

8. 8/21
Why?

9. 9/21
Reason 1

10. 10/21
London LOOP
(London Outer Orbital Path)

11. 11/21

12. 12/21
Reason 2: reduced mobility

13. 13/21
Reason 3: happy people

14. 14/21
Reduced mobility
● I started testing routing algorithms
● Walk from point A to B
● Constraint: maximum distance without a bench
● But I need to have more mapped benches, so I
thought to start simpler and get ready for when
I really need the routing algorithm

15. 15/21
User feedback
This is a very simple app that will be very useful
when we put some data in it. Obviously, it takes
all of us to find the benches and put them on
the map. I encourage you to down load the app
and spend 5 minutes providing info for your
neighborhood. Even if you don't think you'll use
the app, this will be a great service to other users.
My daughter has MS. She would be much
more confident going for a walk if she had the
information this app is intended to provide.

16. 16/21
Micromapping
● A few months before starting the benches I wondered:
– Why mappers map “useless” things like trees, lamps?
● One day I thought: how can I find benches?
– Look at OSM! YES! They are there! Thanks!
● Please do more micromapping (someone will use it...
or yourself!)
● Micromapping differentiates OSM from google Maps
● Please add benches!

17. 17/21
Tag:amenity=bench
● It's a node
● Optional tags:
– backrest=yes/no
– direction=compass point (e.g. NW)
– seats=number of seats
– material=wood, steel, stone
– operator=who maintains the bench
– color=brown, black, etc. (commonly used)

18. 18/21
Current setup
● Every week a script downloads planet-
latest.osm.pbf
● We import the relevant nodes to our
PostgreSQL (with GIS module)
● We use Leaflet
● Users can add benches, toilets, fountains and
favourites. So far only for the same user (we
don't upload them to OSM)

19. 19/21
Tech stack
● HTML + Javascript (with Leaflet) on the client side
● iPhone app to show the HTML+Javascript and a few more
“bits and pieces” (e.g. ads, premium, etc.)
● Flask (Python microframework) to create an API (from
Javascript we call the API)
● A Python script to import the planet into PostgreSQL
● PostgreSQL with GIS

20. 20/21
Numbers
● 535K benches in OSM
● 4K benches in London
● There are more non-mapped benches than mapped
● Since April 2015 to January 2016 (iOS):
– about £10 in ads
– about 5 premium users (thank you Michał)
– Lot of fun!
– I know OSM much better now, JOSM, PostgreSQL and
GIS, Leaflet...

21. 21/21
Thank you!
● Thank you for listening
● Thank you for your mapping
● Any questions?
● Download benches from the AppleStore
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/benches/id962734704?mt=8
Carles Pina
carles@pina.cat

22. 22/21
Image attributions
● http://greenly.ro/greenly.ro//wp-
content/uploads/2012/05/walking.jpg
● http://vector-magz.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/07/sandwich-clipart-
300x197.gif
● My grandparents (reduced mobility)
● An anonymous happy colleague