Paper maps - where are the white spots on earth?
 

Hi,

When I did my overland trip Europe to Asia there were several countries where maps were either impossible to find, of dubious quality, in a script I couldn't read or combinations of this. Now that quite a lot of data is available I can probably print road maps of such areas.

Question: in your travels, where have you found it difficult/impossible to get decent maps? What scale would you like maps to be in?

?c?

Interesting Peter- will these be in A4 size? but that would make for a lot of sheets of paper and heavy....
The likelyhood of finding print shops 'on the way' that can print full size maps is not high.

Personally:

For an overall view- 1/4 000 000 ( like the Mich746)

For riding where there isn't a huge amount of detail (Mali) 1/ 2 000 000

For riding & generally exploring on the bike 1 /1 000 000 which I find enough

The environment and method of travel dictate the scale IMHO

I choose these maps which give clear detail and use that 'plastic/untearable' paper. I cannot recall how many ordinary paper maps I have destroyed in the wind and rain before these were available!

Never had a problem finding maps thanks to this shop which offers mail order too.:thumbup1:

No, I want them to be at least twice that big, possibly bigger. I'm also investigating printing them on waterproof and tear-proof 'paper'.

Personally, I find navigating on small roads with anything bigger than 1:400000 impossible.

I guess I made the mistake of leaving without maps, intending to buy them on the way, but that turned into mission impossible.

The intention is not for people to print them on the road, rather for me to sell them. I'm trying to find out whether it will be worthwhile investing more time and possibly money to set this up, as it's not easy.

Hi,

Sometimes you even get new mapy that are totaly wrong. When i traveled through congo or kameroun there where big red highways shown on the map but the real road wasnt even worth be calles a path.

It also workes the other way round. Some places wich are dotted on the map are big tar roads scince a few years allready, but nobody has updated the maps so far.

LG, Tobi

Exactly my experience in a few places, notably Thailand where the current Berndtson map on sale still shows a couple of highways that don't exist. In Oman the official map showed roads that the sultan wanted built, but they didn't exist yet.

I'm thinking of using OSM data for my project. The problem here will be more incompleteness in areas less travelled.

Anyway, I'm still after pointers of where people think printed maps are lacking.

Remember that any map is often what a country's hopes are of having one day!:D
Had a look in Stanfords Peter and had trouble finding a country for which there wasn't a map- there were a few atolls unlisted... but I don't think this is going to help you much!
You back in NZ or Thailand?

and forgot to mention that when looking for trails to ride- I look for 1/50 000 !

Yes, we are back in Whangarei.

I could do maps of that scale, but there aren't many trails in OSM yet...

Topo maps, on the other hand, I could produce.