The map gets better
every ride.
DMD’s maps and routing are built from OpenStreetMap, the free map of the world made by a community of volunteer mappers. DMD2 gives something back: riders tell OpenStreetMap what the roads they ride are like, where the gates and fords are, and which tracks are still missing — under their own accounts, after a review, with nothing guessed.
Every road in DMD2
starts in OpenStreetMap.
OpenStreetMap is the free, editable map of the world, built by a community of mappers and shared under an open licence. The maps you download in DMD2, the map of the HUB planner and DMD2’s routing are all made from its data — every road, every track, every surface and every “no entry” it knows.
So when OpenStreetMap learns that a track is gravel, washed out or closed by a gate, every map and every router built from it learns too. DMD’s included.
Offline maps
The maps you download in DMD2 are built from OpenStreetMap: roads, tracks, surfaces, places and points of interest.
Routing
DMD2’s routes read the same data: how a road is surfaced, how rough it is, and who may use it.
The HUB planner
Plan in the browser on a map drawn from the same data, then send the route to the bike.
Credited everywhere
“© OpenStreetMap” is on every DMD map, as the open licence asks.
The rider knows
what the satellite can’t.
A satellite photo shows where a track runs. It can’t show that the track is loose gravel, that the ruts stop a big adventure bike, that a gate closes it, or that last winter’s storm washed it out. Few mappers ride the tracks adventure riders ride — and every rider who just rode one knows.
That knowledge used to stay on the bike. With Improve the Map in DMD2, it goes where every rider can use it, on any map built from OpenStreetMap.
One press
on the remote.
Open the Improve the Map panel from Quick Actions, the Remote Controller Menu or the map’s Shortcut button. It sits beside the map, made for the handlebar remote first: the questions on a rail, the answers in a list, and OK saves the big row. The voice confirms, and an Undo stays up for a few seconds.
The panel shows what DMD’s map already says about the road under you, so you only answer what’s wrong or missing. Nothing is sent while you ride: answers wait on the device for your review.
The Improve the Map panel on a DMD T880, on the Surface question.
Surface
Asphalt, Compacted, Gravel, Dirt, Sand, Rock, Grass.
surface=gravelCondition
How rough it is, named by the vehicles that can still pass — in a motorcycle’s words or a 4x4’s.
smoothness=badTrack type
How firm a track is, from Solid to Soft. Only ever on tracks.
tracktype=grade3Width
The widest vehicle that fits, from Bike Only to Two Lanes. An estimate never replaces a measured width.
est_width=2.5Signs
4x4 Only, No Motorcycles, Private and more — only from a sign you can see, and only after your yes.
motorcycle=noReport
Gate, Blocked, Ford, Washed Out, Low Clearance, Missing Track: a note for local mappers to check and map.
OSM note #DMD2Ride it once.
Put it on the map.
Riding a track that isn’t on the map? Tell OpenStreetMap where it runs, without stopping.
- 1
Record it
Where the track leaves the map, press Report → Missing Track. DMD2 records the stretch as you ride and shows the distance so far.
- 2
Stop at its end
Stop Missing Track saves it on the device with your other answers. A forgotten recording stops by itself.
- 3
Checked before it goes
When you send, DMD2 first looks at OpenStreetMap along the whole stretch. If someone has drawn the track since, nothing is sent.
- 4
A note and its GPS trace
A note opens where the track leaves the mapped roads, saying how far it runs and linking to the GPS trace of the stretch, so a local mapper can draw it. You are asked once before any trace goes, and only that stretch is ever sent.
Recording starts: ride to the track’s end, then Stop Missing Track.
Asked once, before the first trace: with the trace, the note alone, or not now.
Sent: the note and its GPS trace. Undo takes both back for 12 hours.
Improve This Road: long-press a road on the map, then More Actions → Improve.
Knew that road
before the ride?
Long-press any road on the map, open More Actions → Improve, and answer the same questions for it: the page shows what the map says, then every question as a row of buttons. Each answer is saved as you tap it, ready for the same review.
Review, then send.
In Map Settings → Improve the Map your answers wait with their state, and nothing leaves the device until you press Send to OpenStreetMap. Answers that change something OpenStreetMap already has wait for your yes first, and say why.
Sent answers can be taken back for 12 hours: Undo puts back what OpenStreetMap had, closes a report’s note and deletes a missing track’s trace.
Two answers ready to send, under the rider’s own OpenStreetMap account.
Made to help mappers,
not to make work for them.
OpenStreetMap runs on trust between people who care about the map. DMD2 was built around the community’s own guidelines, so what riders send is easy to review and easy to rely on.
Your own account
Every answer goes under the rider’s own free OpenStreetMap account, never a shared one, so local mappers can see who made a change and write to them. DMD2 shows as the app that made it.
Never a guess
Every change is an answer a rider gave about a road they were on or pressed on the map. A simulated ride never reaches OpenStreetMap.
Filling in first
Something OpenStreetMap doesn’t know yet is added. Changing what it already has waits for the rider’s yes, and a road’s class is never changed.
The whole road
An answer covers the whole road in OpenStreetMap, so on a long one the ride must have covered at least half of it — or the rider confirms.
Signs only tighten
A sign only ever adds a restriction, never lifts one OpenStreetMap has, and each one waits for the rider’s yes.
Plain, reviewable edits
One changeset per area, with a comment people can read (“Surface and smoothness of 3 tracks, surveyed on a motorcycle ride”), source=survey and #DMD2. A rider’s first edits ask for a review.
No duplicate notes
Reports become notes in English for local mappers, and an open note nearby that already says the same is never repeated.
12-hour undo
A rider can take an answer back: the old value returns in a changeset that says what it undoes, unless someone has changed the road since.
In the open,
with the OpenStreetMap community.
What DMD2 sends, and how, is written down where mappers look for it. What riders send becomes part of OpenStreetMap under its open licence: free for everyone, for good.
DMD2 on the OpenStreetMap wiki
Which tags DMD2 sets, how it decides, and what it never does.
Talk to us on OpenStreetMap
DMD Navigation’s account: the place for mappers with a question or a concern.
The DMD2 manual
Every question, rule and screen of Improve the Map, step by step.
The open licence
OpenStreetMap’s data is open under the ODbL. Credit: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
- Spotting missing tracks for youRide where DMD’s map shows no road, and DMD2 offers to record it from where the road ended.
- Gates and fords on the mapA gate becomes a gate on the road, and a ford a ford where a mapped stream crosses it — after the rider’s yes.
- Where the map needs riders mostPointing riders at the tracks most worth a look: ridden often, missing from the map or missing their surface.
Ride. Notice.
Improve the map.
Every answer helps the next rider on that road — in DMD2, and on every other map built from OpenStreetMap.
OpenStreetMap® is a trademark of the OpenStreetMap Foundation. DMD Navigation is not affiliated with or endorsed by the OpenStreetMap Foundation. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
