4 ms·

If I had a dollar for every time I've seen an American on the Internet assume that anything published in the English language must be US-centric...

rootusrootus 6mo ago
Conversely, if I had a penny for every time someone complained about Americans... ;-)
- dawnerd 6mo ago
  That's one way to get rid of our (US) pennies now that they're useless!
bravoetch 6mo ago
You still wouldn't have nearly as many dollars if you subtracted the times those people were correct in that assumption. Personally I assumed the site would be global. It doesn't have any info though, so I rely on finding out somewhere else I guess.
- lucideer 6mo ago
  > Personally I assumed the site would be global The only reason you would assume a site would be global is if your definition of "global" is "works in the US" & you never bother to check for support of other countries. I live in the anglosphere outside of the US & I encounter more than enough US-only web projects for that not be to a default assumption I hold. Most sites are not global - it's very odd to assume they would be.
  - BigToach 6mo ago
    Another reason could be that calling this OpenTrafficMap gives an impression that it is similar to OpenStreetMap, which is global.
    - lucideer 6mo ago
      OSM launched as a London / UK project. Even today, it's a lot more comprehensive in some parts of the world than others. If I got the impression that it was like OSM, that would give me the impression that it is only as global as my contributions to it (which is what lead to OSM becoming global).
      - MrDrMcCoy 6mo ago
        Expecting support globally is of course unreasonable. Expecting it to be designed to be somewhat location-agnostic for contributors and including some obvious docs (which could just be "coming soon" or "here's what we need to expand") is pretty reasonable to me. I don't get why there isn't even a stub repo for a mobile app to contribute with. Or am I just not finding it?
        antalis 6mo ago
        The repos are there: https://codeberg.org/opentrafficmap https://codeberg.org/opentrafficmap https://codeberg.org/opentrafficmap/its-g5-receiver https://codeberg.org/opentrafficmap/its-g5-receiver: "Current ordering situation (as of 2026-04-23) After the talk on Grazer Linuxtage (media.ccc.de, youtube.com) we got many responses from people also wanting to buy this receiver. We fixed a few issues of the first revision and ordered 200pcs of Revision 2. We expect the 200pcs to arrive in the first week of May, 2026. The cost of one complete receiver (excluding case and mechanical parts) is about 20 €. If you want to purchase a receiver PCB, please contact us at the email liked in the Imprint/Impressum of opentrafficmap.org"
        MrDrMcCoy 6mo ago
        That's for a hardware receiver. It does not appear to have mobile app or API doc accompanyment or a doc on what is needed for expansion. I would imagine that there is a minimum critical mass and municipal buy-in for such devices to work. Theoretically, mobile apps would require far less barriers to start being useful.
exegete 6mo ago
I mean I don’t anyone thought this was in the US since the UI is not in English. Maybe it’s more of, this neat, wish we had it here?
amazingamazing 6mo ago
This is an American site to be fair. Mapbox is also an American company.
perching_aix 6mo ago
Is expecting something to work in the US the same as expecting it to be US-centric?
hamdingers 6mo ago
It seems pretty weird to use all English words in the domain for a service that offers no English translations and operates in no English speaking countries.
- walrus01 6mo ago
  The Germans and Danes and Swedes and Norwegians I see on the Internet developing and publishing software often have a better grasp of the English language than many born in the USA Americans.
  - bobomonkey 6mo ago
    [flagged]
  - ufocia 6mo ago
    That's true for Scandinavians, Germans are not as gut.
    - aspect0545 6mo ago
      Ja ja, maybe not as gut as the Scandinavians, but still better than many US Americans.
- moooo99 6mo ago
  The map is based on international standards and technically it does not restrict locations to German speaking countries. The authors of this project also shared that they intend on publishing more around this project. This seems to be mostly an early demo that was intended for the live event.
- deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
estimator7292 6mo ago
OpenStreetMaps works in the US and much of the rest of the world. It's entirely reasonable to expect that a project with an extremely similar name would also work in most of the world, which just happens to include the USA.
- pietervdvn 6mo ago
  Yeah, OP is a bit in violation of the OSM trademark policy here... See https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/Trademark_Policy https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/Trademark_Policy
ufocia 6mo ago
It does have an English name, so why the surprise?
mahsa32 6mo ago
I did scroll across to the UK and was disappointed that there's none for here. But I'll probably add my own receiver soon!

rootusrootus 6mo ago

Conversely, if I had a penny for every time someone complained about Americans... ;-)

dawnerd 6mo ago
That's one way to get rid of our (US) pennies now that they're useless!

bravoetch 6mo ago

You still wouldn't have nearly as many dollars if you subtracted the times those people were correct in that assumption. Personally I assumed the site would be global. It doesn't have any info though, so I rely on finding out somewhere else I guess.

lucideer 6mo ago
> Personally I assumed the site would be global The only reason you would assume a site would be global is if your definition of "global" is "works in the US" & you never bother to check for support of other countries. I live in the anglosphere outside of the US & I encounter more than enough US-only web projects for that not be to a default assumption I hold. Most sites are not global - it's very odd to assume they would be.
- BigToach 6mo ago
  Another reason could be that calling this OpenTrafficMap gives an impression that it is similar to OpenStreetMap, which is global.
  - lucideer 6mo ago
    OSM launched as a London / UK project. Even today, it's a lot more comprehensive in some parts of the world than others. If I got the impression that it was like OSM, that would give me the impression that it is only as global as my contributions to it (which is what lead to OSM becoming global).
    - MrDrMcCoy 6mo ago
      Expecting support globally is of course unreasonable. Expecting it to be designed to be somewhat location-agnostic for contributors and including some obvious docs (which could just be "coming soon" or "here's what we need to expand") is pretty reasonable to me. I don't get why there isn't even a stub repo for a mobile app to contribute with. Or am I just not finding it?
      - antalis 6mo ago
        The repos are there: https://codeberg.org/opentrafficmap https://codeberg.org/opentrafficmap https://codeberg.org/opentrafficmap/its-g5-receiver https://codeberg.org/opentrafficmap/its-g5-receiver: "Current ordering situation (as of 2026-04-23) After the talk on Grazer Linuxtage (media.ccc.de, youtube.com) we got many responses from people also wanting to buy this receiver. We fixed a few issues of the first revision and ordered 200pcs of Revision 2. We expect the 200pcs to arrive in the first week of May, 2026. The cost of one complete receiver (excluding case and mechanical parts) is about 20 €. If you want to purchase a receiver PCB, please contact us at the email liked in the Imprint/Impressum of opentrafficmap.org"
        MrDrMcCoy 6mo ago
        That's for a hardware receiver. It does not appear to have mobile app or API doc accompanyment or a doc on what is needed for expansion. I would imagine that there is a minimum critical mass and municipal buy-in for such devices to work. Theoretically, mobile apps would require far less barriers to start being useful.

exegete 6mo ago

I mean I don’t anyone thought this was in the US since the UI is not in English. Maybe it’s more of, this neat, wish we had it here?

amazingamazing 6mo ago

This is an American site to be fair. Mapbox is also an American company.

perching_aix 6mo ago

Is expecting something to work in the US the same as expecting it to be US-centric?

hamdingers 6mo ago

It seems pretty weird to use all English words in the domain for a service that offers no English translations and operates in no English speaking countries.

walrus01 6mo ago
The Germans and Danes and Swedes and Norwegians I see on the Internet developing and publishing software often have a better grasp of the English language than many born in the USA Americans.
- bobomonkey 6mo ago
  [flagged]
- ufocia 6mo ago
  That's true for Scandinavians, Germans are not as gut.
  - aspect0545 6mo ago
    Ja ja, maybe not as gut as the Scandinavians, but still better than many US Americans.
moooo99 6mo ago
The map is based on international standards and technically it does not restrict locations to German speaking countries. The authors of this project also shared that they intend on publishing more around this project. This seems to be mostly an early demo that was intended for the live event.
deleted 6mo ago
[deleted]

estimator7292 6mo ago

OpenStreetMaps works in the US and much of the rest of the world. It's entirely reasonable to expect that a project with an extremely similar name would also work in most of the world, which just happens to include the USA.

pietervdvn 6mo ago
Yeah, OP is a bit in violation of the OSM trademark policy here... See https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/Trademark_Policy https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/Trademark_Policy

ufocia 6mo ago

It does have an English name, so why the surprise?

mahsa32 6mo ago

I did scroll across to the UK and was disappointed that there's none for here. But I'll probably add my own receiver soon!