Where to get OSM data

To use the OSMTimeLapseR package to animate edits in your own community, you will need to download data for the region you are interested in. Here are a few options:

Bounding Box based exports

If you want to export data for a specific bounding box only, here are some options:

• Use the Export feature of the OSM website to download a .osm file.
• If you are already working with the data in JOSM, make sure to do a File > Update Data, and then just File > Save As an .osm file.

After you have these .osm files, you can follow the how to use your own data tutorial.

Note: OSMBBike exports will not work, because they do not save the timestamp metadata that our visualization needs.

City-level exports

The Metro Extracts project creates weekly exports of OSM data from a range of cities around the world. If your city’s data is available, download away! (I recommend using the OSM PBF files, since they are the smallest, and OSMTimeLapseR can read them.) If not, you can edit this file to add your city and send them a pull request, or open an issue on their github page.

Country and Continent-level exports

Use History Files!! (Instructions coming soon)

For country and continent-level exports, you have several options, such as Geofabrik downloads, and API-based options