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# System prepended metadata

title: OSM Americana -- Year-end Update

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# OSM Americana -- Year-end Update
![](https://i.imgur.com/0bC1DJf.png)

2022 has been a banner for our new [American map style](https://zelonewolf.github.io/openstreetmap-americana) - our first full year as a community project! As of this post, we've merged [309 pull requests](https://github.com/ZeLonewolf/openstreetmap-americana/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Amerged+closed%3A%3E2022-01-01+) and stood up our own [vector tile server](https://6ug7hetxl9.execute-api.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/data/v3/#0.94/0/0). We are currently rendering  [1,620 tags](https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/projects/osm_americana#tags), most of which are due to our prolific support of highway route networks. The project has captured considerable community interest, and there are 165 mappers following the project in our [Slack channel](https://osmus.slack.com/archives/C01V02K52UX). 

Back in January, I announced the public [launch of the project](https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-us/2022-January/021535.html) and call for participants. In February, we were [featured](https://www.maptiler.com/news/2022/02/openmaptiles-3-13-better-route-maps/) in the OpenMapTiles blog, which discussed a number of important features that we contributed to that vector tile schema, which would allow us to render American-style maps. In April, I introduced OSM Americana to the world at State of the Map US in Tucson, with my presentation "[An American Map Style](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T8FxOPlqXA)". In May we introduced the rendering of [toll roads](https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-us/2022-May/021728.html).

# Americana speaks your language

Americana was recently featured in an OpenStreetMap US **guest blog post** (todo link), where we discussed our new features to change the language of labels in the map! It's now possible to change these on the fly, with a small menu on the lower-right corner. Language label switching is made possible due to the OpenMapTiles integration with [wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/), which provides alternate-language labels for places in the world.

![image|319x187](upload://rgaRUvkTDIfc9cQQgq5F2ygCAm8.png)

When displaying international locations, the map will now show a "gloss" in parentheses, which shows what a place is called in its local language. This feature shows the power a vector maps: all of the language information is encoded in the vector tiles, and the final decision about which label to show is made in the user's web browser! Label glossing was highlighted in [weeklyOSM issue 645](https://weeklyosm.eu/archives/16141).

![image|379x224](upload://33KPySLthQsoh8q8pqz7Tktn25H.png)


# Highway shields

The team has made fantastic progress in rendering highway shields in the US. We had highway shields in 26 states at the beginning of the year. Today we're rendering shields in all 50 states!

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/ykhEnRU.png" width=200>**-->**![image|200x200](upload://rx40JVROtFmaPGf9VghriOCEiQ5.png)

Internationally, we've made great strides in rendering highway shields in countries across the globe, with help from many local mapping communities.

![image|200x200](upload://39JT9e2KDNLqPCyqL6l5w2nxbIz.jpeg)**-->**![image|200x200](upload://nLF2QwwsCZfOfanKGGt37IhuwST.jpeg)

The US sure is a complicated place to map! Here's one of the team's favorite test [locations](https://zelonewolf.github.io/openstreetmap-americana/#map=13.54/40.01207/-75.69324) in Downington, Pennsylvania, where we encounter the famed US 30 Alt-Business-Truck route:

![image|667x432](upload://i04e1gZwBz4wnppt1hN03l49vi2.jpeg)

Another American oddity are the Georgia "color" routes, which are color-coded as part of the [Appalachian Development Highway System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Development_Highway_System). This map clip shows several American-isms on the outskirts of Columbus, GA: the ADHS "green" route, a four-way concurrency, and an expressway.

![image|425x369](upload://kXrYMA0nASheVzeDAKAcIeEMxuP.jpeg)

# American map-isms

We recently added support for rendering [urban areas](https://github.com/ZeLonewolf/openstreetmap-americana/pull/617) based on Natural Earth's [urban areas](https://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/50m-cultural-vectors/50m-urban-areas/) polygons. Although the resolution of Natural Earth is low (sorry, Milwaukee and Cleveland!), urban area highlighting is an expected feature in American atlas-style maps.

![image|389x360](upload://6EbcOPy5ZU1ecvluuTlCYpceHUq.png)

# Samples

This year we included [OpenMapSamples](https://github.com/adamfranco/OpenMapSamples) to the demo map, which allows you to see how different features render for development purposes. This has been a valuable tool for style contributors to test their contributions.

![image|565x499](upload://41SLb9P4RY3QMAyMssxVuIy0ycu.png)

# Looking to the future

We still have a lot to do! One glaringly incomplete area is points of interest (POIs). Bars, restaurants, hospitals, parking lots, you name it, are all missing from the map. It will be a considerable challenge to figure out how to style these icons and make them look beautiful on the map.

I also hope to reach a consensus on rendering [busways](https://github.com/ZeLonewolf/openstreetmap-americana/issues/308). This type of road for busses is present in many American cities, and the rendering of them on the Standard Tile Layer has been [stalled for over two years](https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues/4226). However, a real challenge is coming up with an attractive rendering that distinguishes but doesn't conflict with existing roads.

I look forward to seeing the team continue its trend in developing innovative features that make use of our technology stack to push the envelope on what digital maps can do. If you've been hanging around in our Slack channel, you've probably seen screenshots of an under-development feature to generate a dynamic legend based on the features in the map view.

![image|238x500](upload://ag1aCQXDTtWQ2J5APZMAP1z9Xbk.png)

Lastly, I hope to strengthen the project's partnership with OpenStreetMap US in the year ahead. Three of the 2022-2023 board members are Americana maintainers, and we've recently [adopted](https://github.com/ZeLonewolf/openstreetmap-americana/pull/489) the OSM US Code of Conduct. Plans for the future include incorporating the map into redesigning the OSM US website and moving the project from my GitHub space into one within the OSM US organization. This is a US community style, so it's fitting that it should be partnered with our local chapter.

Please join us if you've ever been interested in contributing to a map rendering project!  We can be found on the [project's GitHub space](https://github.com/ZeLonewolf/openstreetmap-americana) or OSM US's [Slack server](https://slack.openstreetmap.us), at the channel #americana-map-style. Newbies are welcome; we're happy to help show you the ropes.

# Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the contributions of the community members that make this project and the features described in this post happen. Special shoutout to the following contributors that each merged at least 10 PRs in 2022: [Clay Smalley](https://github.com/claysmalley) (260), [Minh Nguyễn](https://github.com/1ec5) (123), [Josh Lee](https://github.com/jleedev) (83), [Adam Franco](https://github.com/adamfranco) (47), [Zeke Farwell](https://github.com/zekefarwell) (35), [Martin Machyna](https://github.com/Mashin6) (34), [Drew M Johnson](https://github.com/Pengor) (27), [Andrew McGinnis](https://github.com/amcginni) (20), and [Jeroen Hoek](https://github.com/Blijbol) (11).