Lane Markings Come to Mapbox Standard
A major reason I started using Apple Maps for day-to-day navigation a couple of years ago was that its maps just look better. They show road markings—lanes, arrows, stop lines—so I can see which lane I need before I reach a complex intersection. It’s a tiny detail, and I probably only care because I like to look at pretty maps. Most people don’t. I know my wife doesn’t.
Anyway, Mapbox now shows the road markings too, along with several other improvements to how roads are drawn.
Taya Lavrinenko, Mapbox:
Mapbox Standard now brings more detailed road surfaces, road structures, and markings directly into applications built with Mapbox Maps SDKs. At high zoom, Standard renders lane boundaries, turn arrows, pedestrian crossings and stop lines.
The additional details are off by default, so you have to enable them by setting the showHdRoads flag if you’re using the SDK or by turning on Lane Details in Mapbox Studio.
Coverage is currently limited to “71 major cities in 29 countries.” Mapbox hasn’t published which ones, though. And it looks like every city appears to be fully covered. For example, the centre of London has road markings throughout, but Kentish Town—still fairly central and by no means a suburb—is only partly covered, with the road markings stopping half-way along Kentish Town Road.
It’s complex work and you can’t just pull this level of detail from OpenStreetMap. But this looks lacklustre; a job half done. Either only roll out cities where there’s complete coverage or don’t.