Portlaoise is one of the or even the fastest growing town in Ireland, and we have to try to keep up with its growth on the map. Therefore, a task was created on January 4th 2024 to map the missing buildings and highways. Sadly, there was only one mapper (myself) who participated, but the task was small enough to be finished fast within three weeks. (The average mapping time per tile was 1min 20sec.) It is now awaiting validation (click here for task manager).

Table of contents

Portlaoise task with mapped tasks resembling an face

Portlaoise had been part of the Laois-Offaly task for which the mapping had been completed 2021-10-30.

Numbers for Buildings

building typeno. Nov. 2019no. Nov. 2021no. Jan 3rd 2024no. Jan 26th 2024
*2,0009,5009,60010,246
yes1,8001,5001,400915
house1796,4006,5006,824
terrace00137
semidetached_house0141141530
detached01618273
shed0674678677
garage1356356361
construction0106103288
prison11111111
public0002
hospital2161616
industrial23484846
commercial7312347
hotel01411513
retail0184580
church1344
school2111618
farm_auxiliary0474747
greenhouse0777
ruins00022
1 Some of these were typos and should have been house. 2 An unusually low number.
map showing buildings under construction in Portlaoise
Buildings under construction in Portlaoise, i.e. building=construction. overpass-query

Addresses

addr tagno. Nov. 2019no. Jan 3rd 2024no. Jan 26th 2024
highway=residential + !name204218260
addr:housenumber162492597
addr:interpolation000
addr:housename72428
addr:street1046713,740
Statistics for addresses mapped in Portlaoise
Areas of Portlaoise with missing residential street names. overpass-query

Traffic related numbers

tagno. Nov. 2019no. Jan 3rd 2024no. Jan 26th 2024
highway163km185km*
highway=crossing4972132
highway=stop273082
traffic_calming6372113
highway=street_lamp141725
amenity=parking3586115
amenity=parking_space00245
amenity=charging_station344
amenity=bicycle_parking188
* Data not available on ohsome yet, and I don’t know how to get it using overpass-turbo.

Mapillary coverage

Mapillary coverage is mostly by DeBigC and from 2018. It was used during the task to try and get street names in the Northwestern estate, but the signs were too small and blurred to yield anything of significance.

Mapillary coverage in Portlaoise

Suggested Action Items

It has already been suggested to hold an in-person mapping event in Portlaoise this year. It is very accessible from Dublin, even on public transport (train and bus no. 726 from Red Cow, terminus convenient to amenities). The event could be used to

  • gather missing street names
  • determine building types in the industrial estates (industrial vs. commercial/ retail)
  • increase street-level imagery coverage
  • discovering more areas of construction not covered in the Esri World imagery yet
  • update construction sites
  • add more house numbers
  • find more defibrillators (overpass query)
  • map locations of rental bike parking stops which has been in the making for a couple of months (Laois Today 2024-01-22), depending on timeline
  • raise awareness of OSM in Portlaoise
  • meet and great and have a bit of craic