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For what it's worth, I found OpenStreetMaps and the Open Source Routing Machine to be sufficient for our purposes. If you don't want features like real-time tr

For what it's worth, I found OpenStreetMaps and the Open Source Routing Machine to be sufficient for our purposes. If you don't want features like real-time traffic awareness, it's worth investigating the open source tooling. It can save a LOT of money.

sudhirj 7y ago
I think real time traffic awareness is exactly what the poster wanted, but yeah it seems like people who don’t need that would be better off using OSS where possible.
- samcheng 7y ago
  Yeah, unfortunately I'm not aware of any open/free sources of real-time traffic data.
  - hkeide 7y ago
    The various European governments have free data but it’s not very granular.
  - DeathArrow 7y ago
    Maybe there is the opportunity for someone starting an open source solution to provide real time traffic data. Until now there wasn't a need since Google provided the data for free. But everything changed and I bet there are lots of people who need the data but can't afford paying Google. The only question is how you gather the data since you don't have Google maps and Waze? You can try to provide a Waze alternative, but how would you convince people to use it?
  - karussell 7y ago
    Here is a collection I started some time ago: https://github.com/graphhopper/open-traffic-collection https://github.com/graphhopper/open-traffic-collection
    - samcheng 7y ago
      These seem to be average / historical data sets, not "is there an accident / traffic jam on my route right now." Thanks for the excellent work, though!
  - Reason077 7y ago
    MapBox makes their global real-time traffic data available on commercial terms. Not free, but could be a credible alternative to paying Google prices: https://www.mapbox.com/traffic-data/ https://www.mapbox.com/traffic-data/
- kwhitefoot 7y ago
  If they run a lot of buses they have some traffic awareness built in to the system. I dare say not as good as Google but a knowing that a bus that is already on a segment that another bus is due to enter is delayed surely allows you to adjust the predicted arrival time of both buses.
winrid 7y ago
+1 for OSRM. Switched after a bad API call cost me thousands :p
Doctor_Fegg 7y ago
PSA: Open Source Routing Machine (OSRM) was largely abandoned by its maintainers. Several of us are working to reboot it, so if you enjoy map data and/or graph theory and have C++ skills, this would be a great project to work on. https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/ https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/ (Reboot discussion at https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/issues/5209 https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/issues/5209)
- fulafel 7y ago
  That issue links to another open source routing engine for OSM (Valhalla) that is actively developed, what are the strengths of each?
  - Doctor_Fegg 7y ago
    OSRM is astonishingly fast (it uses the Contraction Hierarchies routing algorithm, or alternatively Multi-Level Dijkstra). This is compelling for draggable routing UIs, and for large matrix calculations used in the Vehicle Routing Problem (Travelling Salesman). It also makes it easy to customise your routing weightings through Lua 'profile' scripts. The principal downside is that the routing graph takes a lot of time and memory to prepare; runtime RAM usage is also high, though not so much. I think there's some potential for reducing its memory footprint. Valhalla builds on the older A* algorithm, so it's not so fast (or memory-hungry), though it does make some use of hierarchies to shorten query time. Graphhopper is another, featureful routing engine designed for use with OSM data (written in Java).
yetihehe 7y ago
+1, I've made my own geocoding/geodecoding on openstreetmap data, it worked 10x faster than google and with our level of usage, server essentially pays for itself just for 20% of resources. With our level of usage, we would burn through free tier in several hours.
- zylepe 7y ago
  Nice! Is this open source or based on an open source project? I’m interested in doing something similar for one of my projects.
  - yetihehe 7y ago
    Unfortunately no, this was entirely custom closed source code and customized for one specific use. But you can try making your own map server, when you have data in postgis and search a little, geodecoding is rather easy. Just find geometry with specific tags near your point, then select nearest street number, street name, administrative zone names. I've tested first on one country (low space requirements), importing whole europe can take several days even for multicore servers with ssd.
superpermutat0r 7y ago
OSRM can be augmented with your traffic data. https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/wiki/Traffic https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/wiki/Traffic It works quite well.
Youden 7y ago
I'm a big fan of OpenTripPlanner [0]. I mainly use it for accurate isochrones of public transit networks (super handy for figuring out where to live) but it has support for foot, bike and car routes as well. There was some PoC code to support traffic data [1] but it was removed [2], I believe because nobody was interested in maintaining it. If someone wants to add it back and maintain it I doubt they'd object. [0]: https://github.com/opentripplanner/OpenTripPlanner https://github.com/opentripplanner/OpenTripPlanner [1]: https://github.com/opentripplanner/OpenTripPlanner/pull/2077 https://github.com/opentripplanner/OpenTripPlanner/pull/2077 [2]: https://github.com/opentripplanner/OpenTripPlanner/pull/2698 https://github.com/opentripplanner/OpenTripPlanner/pull/2698

sudhirj 7y ago

I think real time traffic awareness is exactly what the poster wanted, but yeah it seems like people who don’t need that would be better off using OSS where possible.

samcheng 7y ago
Yeah, unfortunately I'm not aware of any open/free sources of real-time traffic data.
- hkeide 7y ago
  The various European governments have free data but it’s not very granular.
- DeathArrow 7y ago
  Maybe there is the opportunity for someone starting an open source solution to provide real time traffic data. Until now there wasn't a need since Google provided the data for free. But everything changed and I bet there are lots of people who need the data but can't afford paying Google. The only question is how you gather the data since you don't have Google maps and Waze? You can try to provide a Waze alternative, but how would you convince people to use it?
- karussell 7y ago
  Here is a collection I started some time ago: https://github.com/graphhopper/open-traffic-collection https://github.com/graphhopper/open-traffic-collection
  - samcheng 7y ago
    These seem to be average / historical data sets, not "is there an accident / traffic jam on my route right now." Thanks for the excellent work, though!
- Reason077 7y ago
  MapBox makes their global real-time traffic data available on commercial terms. Not free, but could be a credible alternative to paying Google prices: https://www.mapbox.com/traffic-data/ https://www.mapbox.com/traffic-data/
kwhitefoot 7y ago
If they run a lot of buses they have some traffic awareness built in to the system. I dare say not as good as Google but a knowing that a bus that is already on a segment that another bus is due to enter is delayed surely allows you to adjust the predicted arrival time of both buses.

winrid 7y ago

+1 for OSRM. Switched after a bad API call cost me thousands :p

Doctor_Fegg 7y ago

PSA: Open Source Routing Machine (OSRM) was largely abandoned by its maintainers. Several of us are working to reboot it, so if you enjoy map data and/or graph theory and have C++ skills, this would be a great project to work on. https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/ https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/ (Reboot discussion at https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/issues/5209 https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/issues/5209)

fulafel 7y ago
That issue links to another open source routing engine for OSM (Valhalla) that is actively developed, what are the strengths of each?
- Doctor_Fegg 7y ago
  OSRM is astonishingly fast (it uses the Contraction Hierarchies routing algorithm, or alternatively Multi-Level Dijkstra). This is compelling for draggable routing UIs, and for large matrix calculations used in the Vehicle Routing Problem (Travelling Salesman). It also makes it easy to customise your routing weightings through Lua 'profile' scripts. The principal downside is that the routing graph takes a lot of time and memory to prepare; runtime RAM usage is also high, though not so much. I think there's some potential for reducing its memory footprint. Valhalla builds on the older A* algorithm, so it's not so fast (or memory-hungry), though it does make some use of hierarchies to shorten query time. Graphhopper is another, featureful routing engine designed for use with OSM data (written in Java).

yetihehe 7y ago

+1, I've made my own geocoding/geodecoding on openstreetmap data, it worked 10x faster than google and with our level of usage, server essentially pays for itself just for 20% of resources. With our level of usage, we would burn through free tier in several hours.

zylepe 7y ago
Nice! Is this open source or based on an open source project? I’m interested in doing something similar for one of my projects.
- yetihehe 7y ago
  Unfortunately no, this was entirely custom closed source code and customized for one specific use. But you can try making your own map server, when you have data in postgis and search a little, geodecoding is rather easy. Just find geometry with specific tags near your point, then select nearest street number, street name, administrative zone names. I've tested first on one country (low space requirements), importing whole europe can take several days even for multicore servers with ssd.

superpermutat0r 7y ago

OSRM can be augmented with your traffic data. https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/wiki/Traffic https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/wiki/Traffic It works quite well.

Youden 7y ago

I'm a big fan of OpenTripPlanner [0]. I mainly use it for accurate isochrones of public transit networks (super handy for figuring out where to live) but it has support for foot, bike and car routes as well. There was some PoC code to support traffic data [1] but it was removed [2], I believe because nobody was interested in maintaining it. If someone wants to add it back and maintain it I doubt they'd object. [0]: https://github.com/opentripplanner/OpenTripPlanner https://github.com/opentripplanner/OpenTripPlanner [1]: https://github.com/opentripplanner/OpenTripPlanner/pull/2077 https://github.com/opentripplanner/OpenTripPlanner/pull/2077 [2]: https://github.com/opentripplanner/OpenTripPlanner/pull/2698 https://github.com/opentripplanner/OpenTripPlanner/pull/2698