Organic Maps impressed me with its elegant UI, effective routing, and good ethics.

cross-posted from: https://psychedelia.ink/post/526072

My impression of Organic Maps immediately improved when I started driving. It talks! It knows exit numbers! It can tell you which lanes to use! Sure, it isn’t as polished as Google Maps, but all of the functionality is present. The UI is high-contrast and easy to read, although I wish the text showing exit numbers/street names was a little bigger. When you’re simply on the road and following directions, Organic Maps feels every bit as intuitive as Google Maps.

As my fiancee and I prepared to set off into the boonies, I plugged in the address of our hotel. About 45 seconds later, Organic Maps returned the 300-mile route to our destination. It can take a lot longer to calculate longer routes using your phone’s processor instead of a huge cloud server. It didn’t really bother me though; 45 seconds is nothing compared to the 6-hour trip ahead. If that’s the cost of using a maps app that doesn’t spray your personal data all over the internet, I’ll pay it.

  • XpeeN@sopuli.xyz
    0·
    1 year ago

    I have only one complain about OSM in general, why can’t I browse the bus lines a specific bus stop offers?? I can check if it has a fucking bench but can’t inspect the bus lines.

    • N4CHEM@lemmy.ml
      0·
      1 year ago

      There might be some website that offers that functionality using OSM data.

      One thing that we need to understand is that OSM is data. Loads of it. The ways of displaying and searching for that data are up to each website and app that uses OSM data: first the data has to be added to OSM, then someone has to develop a tool to easily view it.

    • Voyager@psychedelia.inkOPEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      Not sure which application you are using, but you can use the transport map layer of OSM and see all the bus stops. Every stop likely already has the tags for bus stop features.
      As for Organic Maps, it’s optimized for driving/directions and doesn’t have the advanced features that more redines apps have. That said I love it and enjoy using it for directi9ns.

    • monobot@lemmy.ml
      0·
      1 year ago

      OsmAnd has “public transport” option it shows you all the routes abd stops and you can choose specific one. It is great.