So I’m from northern MN which is mainly a rural region. I’ve been working to contribute as much imagery as I can but only being one person i’m limited to what I can do. I’m guessing the rest of the map is similar to what i see. Urban areas have high contribution rates and rural have far less if any. I mean it makes sense as there aren’t as many people and generally speaking rural populations adopt tech much slower. This being said I want to help change that. We need more rural contributors and data. The people that can benefit from the most from everything being developed is the rural communities. We don’t have as many people so being able to use tech in lieu of workforce is huge for productivity and economic growth. So if you’re a rural contributor please keep it up! We need more of us!
I only do rural and remote-ish areas, in a different country though (Australia) I live on road so have covered quite a distance.
I have always had the germ of an idea that it would be worthwhile contacting rural freight carriers and/or delivery services for access to their (GPS equipped) dashcams. ie arrange to swap over their SD card every few days, do the upload and repeat. It would need some agreement and processing about privacy (like only capture up to a farm entry gate), but technically a good solution.
Would also be useful for long distance large truck routes, but would not have many minor roads. Will also be worthwhile contacting permanent road dwellers.
I remember a Mapillary “kit” (document) some time ago that had half a dozen SD cards and a BlackVue, I assume made for such a situation.
ie pick an area to cover, find out who the local freight carriers are, contact, discuss the virtues of voluntary contribution and setup. I’d suggest that Mapillary start up the policy/support on this.
That would be absolutely awesome if you could figure out a way to do that. Would make perfect sense. The issue I see with it though is there’s basically zero incentive for a company to do this so I think it would be a tough sell. If you make that work that would be awesome though. The people who you call road dwellers are the ones we need to get on board. I think they would probably provide the best data honestly.
This is a great take on it. I really should see if theres more local interest from people to help support updating the map. I’m certainly going to continue contributing what I can myself but having others join in would be great. I really think it’s a cultural thing in my neck of the woods. Not a lot of people are as excited about tech or new developments. Unless there’s an immediate benefit to them they kind of just look the other way. Nonetheless it’s still worth giving it a shot!
Should also point out that the phone app/capture method is not suitable in this case. Lesser population areas will tend to have slower/patchy Internet and a dashcam is less prone to damage. The road dweller method would also need more “training” as it isn’t likely they would stay in an area that a contributor could service regularly. I have found they tend to more concentrate on popular routes too, so it will take a while to dig out those that just wander about. The distinction is “living on” vs being “a tourist”.
It may also be a good idea to give the people capturing a set of updating urls “in case” they want to review where they have been. That may include areas of road damage they would like to complain about! ie draw up a number of incentives to help sell the idea.
You can’t argue that logic!
Yeah, I could see that being an issue. I already see that with my own mapping in that the I have to really work on getting the roads less traveled as opposed to just hitting the main routes like I usually do. Which isn’t a big deal for me since I want to ultimately map my entire region but for others who aren’t as invested in it would be problematic.
Rural mapping is so important but often overlooked. Your contributions make a huge difference, and hopefully your post inspires more people in rural areas to get involved.
Great to see another Minnie-sodan around. It’s tough to get out and hit those back roads. I have a few to the West of you @xLagonDragonx in a few trips to grandma’s. But it’s hard to justify spending much time doing that when trying to maximize time visiting with her.
Otherwise it is just a dull ride. I like to take other routes. Especially when it is a long drive.
