Many OpenStreetMap ways missing

[Nakaner]

I reviewed all changesets of the last days which added new nodes to OSM and observed a higher than usual number of duplicates added by users. Therefore, I had a look on the Wheelmap web app and found that a significant number of POIs which are mapped as ways in OSM are missing.

I checked if it only applies to recently added ways (after the change to HTTPS on planet.openstreetmap.org on 8 May 2018) but even old POIs are affected.

What I have found out so far:

• It does not matter if the way has a wheelchair tag or not but ways with wheelchair tag are usually present at Wheelmap. (I assume because a lot of wheelchair tags is still added by Wheelmap users)
• It does not matter if there is a node with the same ID in OSM. It does matter that node has tags or not.
• I was unable to find a date after which changes to POIs did not get reflected on Wheelmap.

Examples for missing ways:

• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/593679454 created on 2018-06-04, no wheelchair but amenity=kindergarten
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/546189796/history created on 2017-12-11 with shop=doityourself, last modified on 2018-04-23 (still a doityourself store)
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/108749562/history created on 2011-04-16, shop=* since 2016-04-30 15:27, last modified on 2018-02-22 (still a supermarket)

Examples for ways which are present:

• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/415118036/history created on 2016-05-02, last modified on 2016-05-26
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/51564216/history created in 2010, shop=* since 2016-04-30 17:02
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/149521378/history created in 2012 as amenity=post_office, name added on 2016-04-30 17:02; name is present but opening hours are missing!
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/263341549/history created on 2016-04-29 22:25
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/409134485/history created on 2016-04-09
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/404254282/history created on 2016-03-17 without address but with shop=car_repair, address added on 2016-03-20 00:19
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/123434374/history created in 2011, amenity=place_of_worship since 2016-03-21 20:36
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/252218653/history created on 2013-12-17, shop=* since 2016-03-19 19:56
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/401060214/history created on 2016-03-01 19:28 with amenity=school
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/241718036/history created on 2013-10-11, shop=* since 2016-03-22 19:44
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/407978795 created on 2016-04-05
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/336796797/history created on 2015-04-05, shop=butcher since 2016-03-30 08:06
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/400438032 created on 2016-02-27, not modified since then
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/249779615/history created 2013-12-03, shop=bakery since 2016-03-20 17:20, last modified on 2017-08-23
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/397084056/history create on 2016-02-10 12:50 with shop=bicycle
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/397074204/history created on 2016-02-10 with amenity=kindergarten, last modified on 2018-05-22
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/24844972 created in 2008, last modified on 2015-02-06, no wheelchair but amenity=school
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/199379219 created in 2013, last modified on 2015-09-14
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/147775739/history created in 2012, last modified on 2018-06-04
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/139672910/history created in 2012, last modified on 2016-06-25 (tags which are interesting for Wheelmap were been added in 2016)
• https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/326705700/history created in 2015, last modified on 2017-07-10 (interesting tags were added in 2017)

I have not found any way before 2016-04-30 which is missing on Wheelmap.

Wheelmap suffered that problem until 2011 or 2012 when it supported nodes only. This was fixed by adding some kind of way-to-node converter developed by Geofabrik. I recommend to check the following things:

• if this tool is still running
• if it was not running in spring 2016
• if it is able to handle 64 bit node IDs
• if it fetches files from planet.openstreetmap.org and uses HTTPS to do so (or follow redirects from port 80 to port 443)
• if there is enough space on the disks and the system is not out of memory (no joke)

These are the common pitfalls.