MalaysiaGIS.com

Source: New Straits Times

There are no detailed maps of the country which would allow you to make good use of the handheld GPS but there is someone doing something about the problem.

Meet Adil Othman. He has been going around the country and keying-in coordinates to build a comprehensive map of the country.

So far he has almost completely mapped Bangsar, Petaling Jaya and Johor Bahru and is also doing very well in Malacca and Penang. Most of the trunk roads and highways in the country has been digitised.

The three locations are well mapped for good reasons - firstly he lives in Petaling Jaya, secondly he hangs out in Bangsar and thirdly his in-laws are in Johor Bahru.

He has a Singaporean partner in the form of Allen Teoh and the duo have been spending their free time bothering GPS satellites with their triangulating efforts.

"The map is quite detailed in some areas but obviously it would not be as detailed as commercial versions.

We have details up to residential area street level in the better mapped areas," said Adil.

The maps are available on the Internet at http://www.mysubaruclub.com/gpsmaps and they now have a bunch of users and enthusiasts who have become registered members of their group and a few of them are contributing to the effort.

"I have one contributor from Petaling Jaya who is obsessed with detail and he would put in even back lanes.

He said it would be great if more people were to contribute to the project and make it the best community built digital map around.

"The map is available for free, all you have to do is go to the website and it is yours."

Adil said the map offers only auto-routing for Petaling Jaya as the software he is using is a free evaluation version which allows the inclusion of 1500 streets into its directory.

Apart from the roads, it also contains data about points of interest that were drawn up with tourists in mind and they include a list of hotels and this being a Malaysian guide, good food outlets.

The sad thing is that there are some who take advantage of the availability of the map to profit from it.

"There are people who downloaded the map and install it on GPS units for a fee and they charge as much as RM90 'service fee'".

This annoys Adil but he admits that he is not doing anything about the problem.

Asked whether there are any good digital maps available for the public to install on their GPS units, he said there are a few companies trying to develop them but so far none has made it to the market.

"Drawing up the map is just one aspect of the process, the harder part would be to note on the map whether a road is one way street or if a junction is a left-turn only and whether there are any anomalies that motorists should know about.

"Keying in all these features would also make the auto-routing work properly because otherwise the software would not know if you cannot turn into a particular junction because of a divider and that you would have to make a U-turn further up."

In Europe, Japan and the United States where digital maps and satellite navigation is more commonplace, motorists buy the digital map and then subscribe to an updating service which will tell them of roadworks and changes in the roads. Some of the more advanced systems also inform drivers about prevailing traffic conditions ahead.