Hello OSMers of Malaysia,
Apa Khabar? I have collected (non-GPS method) many bus stop locations for Penang island. I have found the location of bus stops throughout various bus and car journeys in Penang Island. None of the bus stop locations on the island (excluding USM- as someone else did it) have been sourced from PEGIS (government) or private sectors). I have added the bus routes with full credits to Rapid Penang website and validated with my own Rapid trips on the island.
You can find bus stop locations at Teluk Bahang, Batu Ferringhi, Georgetown, Air Itam, Gelugor, Bayan Baru, sungai Dua, Gertak Sanggul, Balik Pulau, Teluk Kumbar, Bayan Lepas. Around 100 bus stop locations or more have been added to the island (and a bit to Seberang-Butterworth) in OSM since the beginning of the year. I saw in Klang Area, some sections have bus stops and bus routes displayed in certain places. However, there is no linkages made between both categories. In Penang Island, I have added selected bus routes and these bus routes pass through the uploaded bus stop locations (bus stops may not be exactly on top of OSM roads)
I would like to encourage other OSMers who have GPS or not to scout other bus stop locations in other cities in Malaysia (or complete the bus stop locations upload of Klang area). Hope to see it reflected soon.
Thanks
It has come to my attention recently that Google Maps have successfully added all the bus stop locations and bus numbers (attached to bus stops) for the Penang State. However, this news could be mixed bag for me. I have unsuccessfully publicized this information for many months before Google decided to add them. The good news is the general public could utilize their favourite web mapping service to find the bus stop location (next time, if possible find when is the next bus coming). The bad news for me is it may disincentives me from collecting remaining dozens of bus stop locations in Penang State. Not to worry, Open Street Map has one advantage over Google. There is an overlay bus routes on street network on Transportation Map. This allows the user to know roughly where the bus routes move through and intersect.
Your effort has been outstanding. However, if we are trying to compete with google, we would have a very big problem doing so. What you are doing is pretty much what other OSM malaysia mappers are doing, lone man crusades. Therefore, we do the best we can, at the pace that we are capable of. Little by little, we’ll get it done.
I am pleased to see that there some other users have been adding bus routes in Penang. I appeal to all those who live in Penang on OSM, let’s get the whole state covered with correct bus routes and bus stop locations. Johor Area remains the best in terms of coverage network.
