Improve the Map

Your OpenStreetMap account

Every answer goes to OpenStreetMap under your own OpenStreetMap account, not a shared DMD one: OpenStreetMap asks for one person per account, so that local mappers can see who made a change and write to them about it. Your edits are credited to you, and DMD appears as the app that made them.

1. No account yet? Create one for free on your phone or computer at openstreetmap.org/user/new.
2. In DMD2, open Map Settings → Improve the Map and tap Sign In. OpenStreetMap’s sign-in page opens in the browser; after you allow DMD2, you come back to the app signed in.
3. A unit without a browser: tap Sign In Inside the App to sign in on OpenStreetMap’s page inside DMD2 (with your OpenStreetMap username or email and password).

Your sign-in stays on this device only: it is not part of your profile sync or your backups. Sign Out on the same page forgets it. You can also withdraw DMD2’s access at any time from your OpenStreetMap account settings.

While riding: the quick strip

The quick strip sits at the foot of the map, with big buttons made for gloves: the question on top, the answers under it, in one row when the screen is wide enough and in two or three when it is narrow, so no word is ever cut in half. Open it from Quick Actions → Improve the Map, right under the Planner, or from the Remote Controller Menu → Improve the Map (the entry appears once you turn on Improve the Map mode, or unhide it in Menu Settings), or assign Improve the Map to the map’s Shortcut button (long-press it to choose). Opened from Quick Actions or the Remote Controller Menu, the Quick Actions button shows the blue close button while the strip is up; opened from the Shortcut, the Shortcut does.

Or switch on the Improve the Map Button in Map Settings → Map Overlays: a round button on the map that opens and closes the strip, lights up while it is open, and shows how many answers are waiting to be sent. Drag and resize it in Position Elements like the other map buttons.

• The chip names the question and what DMD’s map says about the road under you, for example SURFACE · Map: Gravel. Tap it to choose another question.
• Tap an answer and it is saved: the voice confirms (“Gravel saved”) and for five seconds the chip reads ✓ Gravel saved · Tap to undo.
• The strip closes by itself after 12 seconds without a tap, or with Close.
• Nothing is sent while you ride. Answers wait on the device until you review and send them.

The questions

Every button stands for one OpenStreetMap tag, chosen to match what OpenStreetMap’s own documentation says about each value.

Your vehicle

OpenStreetMap describes how rough a road is by the vehicles that can still use it, for motorcycles and for four-wheelers alike. In Map Settings → Improve the Map → Your Vehicle, choose Motorcycles or 4x4 & Cars (cars, 4x4s, vans, RVs, ATVs and SSVs). Until you choose, DMD2 goes by your last “What did you ride?” answer when you saved a recording. It only changes the words on the Condition buttons: OpenStreetMap gets the same value either way.

Improve This Road

Parked, or planning at home: long-press a road on the map to open Location Info, which lists what DMD’s map knows about the road, then tap More Actions → Improve This Road. The page shows the road and what the map says about it, then every question as a row of buttons. Tap an answer to save it; tap it again to take it back. Signs toggle one by one, and each report is its own note at the spot you pressed.

Review and send

Map Settings → Improve the Map shows what is waiting at the top, with the Send to OpenStreetMap button, and lists Your Answers below, newest first. Each answer shows its state:

• Waiting — saved, goes out with the next Send. Remove deletes it.
• Needs a look — the app wants your yes first, and says why (see below). Send It or Remove.
• In OpenStreetMap / Note sent — sent; Undo for 12 hours.
• Already there / Already reported — OpenStreetMap had it, so nothing was sent.
• Not sent — could not be applied, with the reason (for example, no road in OpenStreetMap at that spot).
• Taken back — undone.

Send groups your answers by area, one OpenStreetMap changeset per area, each with a plain comment such as “Surface and smoothness of 3 tracks, surveyed on a motorcycle ride”. After you finish a recording with answers waiting, a note on the map offers to open the review.

What is sent, and what waits for you

DMD’s maps carry no OpenStreetMap ids, so each answer is matched to the road in OpenStreetMap when you send. Then:

• Filling in something OpenStreetMap does not have yet is sent.
• Changing a value OpenStreetMap already has waits for your yes (“OpenStreetMap says Standard Bike here. Change it to Big ADV?”).
• The whole road: an answer applies to the whole road in OpenStreetMap. Roads up to 1 km take it straight away; on a longer one, your ride must have covered at least half of it (Improve the Map mode keeps that trail), or you confirm it.
• Two roads close together, answers that contradict each other, or “Impassable” tapped at speed wait for a look.
• Signs always wait for your yes, and never lift a restriction OpenStreetMap already has.
• An answer needs a current GPS position, and a simulated ride never reaches OpenStreetMap.
• DMD2 never guesses: every change is an answer you gave, about a road you were on or pressed on the map.

Improve the Map mode

Improve the Map Mode (Map Settings → Improve the Map → While Riding) keeps a short trail of your rides on this device, so an answer can cover a whole long road. The trail is kept for 7 days and never leaves the device: it is not sent to OpenStreetMap or to the HUB. With the mode off, nothing is recorded, and you can still save and send answers. Turning it on also shows Improve the Map in the Remote Controller Menu.

Undo

For 12 hours after sending, Undo on an answer puts back what OpenStreetMap had before, in a new changeset that says what it undoes. If someone has changed that road since, it is left alone. Undo on a report closes its note, with a comment that it was a mistake.

Good to know