Contributing commercial vehicle GPS traces from Kerala — a routing approach

I’ve been working on a method to convert commercial vehicle telematics data into useful GPX traces for OSM contribution in Kerala.

The problem

Telematics data is segment-based — each record has a start coordinate, end coordinate, timestamp and distance, but no continuous GPS track in between. Uploading these directly produces straight lines which aren’t useful for mapping.

The solution

I set up a local OSRM instance using the Kerala road extract from Geofabrik, then route-matched each segment to the actual road network. This produces GPX traces with thousands of road-following points instead of straight lines.

Results

From two months of data covering Thrissur, Irinjalakuda, Chalakudy, Kodungallur and surrounding areas:

• 141 road-snapped segments uploaded as GPX traces
• 19 high-priority segments flagged as possible unmapped roads
• These will be cross-checked against aerial imagery in JOSM

Next steps

Reviewing the unmapped road candidates in JOSM against Bing aerial imagery. More vehicle data from the same region will be processed and contributed regularly.

If anyone in the Kerala OSM community has experience with similar data or wants to collaborate on reviewing unmapped road candidates, feel free to reach out.

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Tools used: Python, OSRM (self-hosted), gpxpy

Hey OSM Kerala,

I’ve recently come across these innovative “Bottle Booths” scattered across Kerala as part of the state’s push for better plastic waste management. From what I’ve gathered, they’re public recycling stations designed specifically for collecting plastic bottles to reduce littering and promote recycling. The Kochi Corporation alone has installed over 300 of them in various spots, and similar initiatives are popping up elsewhere, often tied to the Haritha Karma Sena waste collection program.

Inspired by this, I’ve started mapping them into OpenStreetMap! So far, I’ve added a few in my local area, tagging them as:

• amenity=recycling
• recycling_type=container
• recycling:plastic_bottles=yes
• Optional extras like name=Bottle Booth and operator=Local Corporation (e.g., Varkala Muncipality) if known.

I’m not entirely sure about the full benefits of mapping every single one—maybe it’ll help apps like OsmAnd or Organic Maps guide people to the nearest booth, encouraging more recycling and cutting down on plastic pollution. It could also provide useful data for environmental projects or local governments.

If anyone’s in Kerala and wants to join in, let’s collaborate! keep an eye out and add them as you go. Here’s a photo of one.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plastic_bottle_booth,_Kerala.jpg

Happy mapping!