I like maps, geojson, and data. As such, I end up making a lot of custom maps.
Here are some of those :)
I like stink pipes. This is a map of the 21 Grade II listed stink pipes in Sheffield.
The source also has generic instructions for making a geojson file from any list of data from Historic England (i.e., any collection of listed structures).
Since creating this, I have learnt there is also an OpenStreetMap relation of stink pipes in Sheffield kept up to date by Paul Berry.
source / map 1 (geojson.io) / map 2 (my server) / map 3 (the MBA)
I made this because I wanted to choose a bothie to visit that had good pedestrian access, and that I could plan a route to, and the bothie map on MBA's (Mountain Bothies Association) website uses a map overlay of OS maps, which uses the "Standard" map type, which doesn't show common footpaths, bridleways, etc.
So, my solution (as you see in source above) was to scrape the bothie locations, and create my own map, which I could then overlay onto Bing Maps, which (for some reason) includes a premium OS Maps layer for free.
In the end (and mainly because of train timetables) we went to Abyssinia.
you can also find these via OpenStreetMap data using Overpass Turbo.
source / map 1 (geojson.io) / map 2 (Google Maps)
This is a map of all the service stations I found on https://motorwayservices.uk/ and https://motorwayservices.ie/. Their map (to my knowledge) does not show all of the services, so I made my own. There is a nice flow of commands in the source of how I made the file.
It comes in very handy for hitchhiking.
you can also find these via OpenStreetMap data using Overpass Turbo.
source / map 1 (geojson.io) / map 2 (Google Maps)
Sheffield City Council publishes data on House in Multiple Occupation Licenses (HMO Licences) in its district on https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/housing/houses-in-multiple-occupation.
They only post an excel file, and refused to consider posting a CSV. They also said that historical data is not available, and they delete the file every time they upload a new one. Hey-ho.
Anyway, I downloaded it, geocoded the addresses from street names and postcodes into latitude/longitude coordinates, and created some data files, so one could view the data nicely on a map. It also has the bonus of being colour coded by "Permitted Occupants". Apparently some houses are allowed to house 93 occupants. Crazy.
Sheffield has 5 rivers, which makes it ideal for river walking. I found the IDs of the rivers on OSM (Open Street Map) and created a query for Overpass Turbo, which is a tool to visualise OSM queries.
| River | OSM relation |
|---|---|
| River Sheaf | 11890887 |
| Porter Brook | OSM relation |
| River Rivelin | OSM relation |
| River Loxley | OSM relation |
| River Don | OSM relation |
To find good-looking spots for a river walk, I combined Sheffield's four smaller rivers into one map using Overpass Turbo.
Sheaf/Porter/Rivelin/Loxley combined using Overpass Turbo
In a river in a city, you should probably be aware that there are many storm overflow drains which dump untreated or treated sewage into the rivers. They should only operate in times of high rainfall, and I believe their use is declining.
Yorkshire Water's Storm Overflow Map / The Rivers Trust's sewage map / The Rivers Trust's article on sewage in our rivers
I enjoy a river walk. Here are some maps of some that I've done
I went on a road trip through Scotland, and kept track of our stopping points. I exported several GPX files of the routes between the points, and used Python to make them into an SVG.
I biked from Birmingham to Cambridge and made a lot of maps of the journey. You'll find a lot more information in the blog post.
I like travelling as much as anyone else. I don't fly, so I end up getting a lot of trains whenever I go to Europe.
I'm in the process of collecting GPS traces for some of these trips, to put on some sort of map. It would be neat to visualise. Currently just a GitHub repository.