New York City
V・T・E New York City, New York, United States  |
| latitude: 40.7555, longitude: -73.9739 |
| Browse map of New York City 40°45′19.80″ N, 73°58′26.04″ W |
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External links:
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| Use this template for your locality |
New York City is a city in New York, United States at latitude 40°45′19.80″ North, longitude 73°58′26.04″ West.
The NYC map looks great thanks to the contributors and community continuing to maintain core features like roads, buildings, points of interest and further flourishes with detail from park amenities to sidewalk accessibility. There's always something to add or update, and you're welcome to join us!
| Local user group | |
OSM NYC 
| |
| Meetings | |
| When: | monthly |
|---|---|
| Where: | variable (map) |
| Mailing list | |
| mailing list – archive | |
| Website | |
| no website | |
| Image | |
| no image | |
The Community
There are few ways to connect to the OSM community in New York City. Here are some suggestions to get you started.
The Slack Channel #local-nyc (active)
The slack channel is a great place to connect on projects and share events. Very welcoming community.
The Mailing List
Sign up for the email list. While the list covers the whole state, messages are infrequent. Local events are shared here as well.
Next Meetup
Previous mapping parties were held by the meetup group (no longer active). These are bulleted below for inspiration for future events
Coordinated Mapping Efforts for NYC
| Name of Task | Date Launched | Last Contribution / Check Date | Theme | Mapped (%) | Validated (%) | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MAPPING FOR IMPACT: MAPPING OUTDOOR SWIMMING POOLS IN NYC FOR RISING TIDE EFFECT | 2022-05-25 | 2023-09-24 | swimming | 99 | 11 | Active |
| NYC Sidewalks - Staten Island Community Board 1 | 2019-09-03 | 2023-09-25 | mobility; pedestrian, disability | 64 | 0 | Active |
| NYC Sidewalks - Brooklyn Community Board 13 | 2019-09-03 | 2023-09-25 | mobility; pedestrian, disability | 100 | 22 | Active |
| NYC Sidewalks - Manhattan Community Board 12 | 2019-09-03 | 2022-10-18 | mobility; pedestrian, disability | 48 | 5 | Active |
| The Walkabout: NYC Pedestrian Mapping Initiative | 2023-09-11 | 2024-02-04 | mobility; pedestrian, disability | 59 | 34 | Active |
| Name of Challenge | Date Launched | Theme | Difficulty | NYC specific? | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legacy of overt racism in the United States | 2020-07-03 | US history; heritage, racism | difficult | no | Stale |
| Memorials to human rights activists in the United States | 2020-07-03 | US history; heritage; civil rights | difficult | no | Stale |
| Long Island Traffic Lights (Brooklyn, Queens) | 2017-09-11 | traffic infra | easy | yes | Stale |
| Add missing NYC Bike Lanes | 2016-11-14 | bicycle infra | difficult | yes | Done |
| Name of Atlas | Borough | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| Mapping Accessibility on Austin Street | Queens | sidewalk widths |
| The Great, Socially Distant, Bike Parking Scavenger Hunt | Manhattan | bike infra |
| 4x4 - Queensborough Community College | Queens | micro mapping, campus amenities |
| Kissena Park | Queens | micro mapping, campus amenities |
*There are plenty of projects in New York City not mentioned here. As an example, even though many of the buildings were imported in 2014 and 2015, new construction projects are coming online every year and even the most up-to-date imagery on the iD editor and JOSM show a ton of new coverage.
Initiatives and Imports
Sidewalks and Crossings
Sidewalks and pedestrian mobility are one of the most important OSM assets in New York City. The data can be used to provide block by block information about street for populations that require wheelchairs, strollers and walkers. As of October 1 2023, there have been 6 coordinated OSM US Task Managers dedicated towards sidewalk and crossing mapping (see above). There are still many communities lacking good OSM sidewalk and crossings coverage (for example: South and East Brooklyn). Please use the Overpass-Turbo tool to help identify gaps.
Note: there currently is no consensus about naming sidewalks.
Buildings data
NYC Buildings Addresses import is pretty much complete. This dataset from the city, included building perimeter outlines, heights, and address point data. As of mid-2014 we are in final cleanup mode. Remaining tasks are captured on Github: https://github.com/osmlab/nycbuildings/issues/
Taking this data as a start for 3D mapping of New York, several users have been refining roof-shapes and building parts data. As a manual data input process, hence some of the 3D details seen e.g. here on osmbuildings.org
landuse=residential cleanup
The landuse=residentialtag is applied in inconsistent ways (this is true outside of NYC as well). Note: this landuse tag is visible on the default style but not many popular basemap layers like Mapbox Streets. Here are some simple tasks if you'd like to improve the map:
- Remove ways where the only tag is
landuse=residentialif it is not geographically meaningful, e.g. it simply outlines a residential block. See some here: https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/tBF - Ensure
landuse=residentialis used on multi-building developments that make up a geographically coherent area, like Stuyvesant Town https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/170294693 - Add
operator=NYCHAfor public housing developments operated by the NYC Housing Authority. Example: https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/54367928#map=17/40.69751/-73.97942
Brandon is interested in this.
Other possible imports
Many interested parties are following the progress in NYC's open data movement and the datasets opening up at data.cityofnewyork.us. Some of these are Potential Datasources which could be investigated for import to OpenStreetMap.
Liz, Serge, Alex are some of the people interested in this.
Projects
- Bike lanes and roads cleanup in conjunction with DoITT, an agency within the City of New York.
Tagging
History
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The Commission is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and culturally significant buildings and sites by granting them landmark or historic district status, and regulating them once they're designated.
Abbreviation: lpc
- heritage=5
- heritage:operator=lpc
- heritage:website=https://www1.nyc.gov/site/lpc/index.page
- ref:US-NY:lpc=*
- lpc:inscription_date=*
Honorary Street Names
Many streets and street corners are co-named yearly by the city council. These designations can be found in the Street Name Dictionary as well as on the NYC Street Map.
These are typically tagged as alt_name=* though there has been consideration to tag them more specially as honorary_name=* or memorial_name=*.
Whether they are tagged on the intersection node or the block way depends on the designation from the city as well as the physical signs present.
Open Streets
The New York City Department of Transportation "Open Streets"[1] program involves partial or full closures of streets, renewed on an annual basis. A list of current participating streets can be found on the DoT Website. These streets are often tagged with motor_vehicle:conditional=* with the value no for fully closed streets and destination for limited access streets, followed by date or time restrictions.
An example is motor_vehicle:conditional=no @ (Fr 16:00-23:00; Sa-Su 11:00-23:00; Dec-Mar off) which is used for the various segments of the Vanderbilt Open Street.
Subpages
- New York City Tools and Resources a collection of online resources for NYC mappers