OpenStreetMap would like to assure the UK Department for Transport that we are not the data source that placed cities in the wrong regions. You might have confused us with OpenGeoFiction: the title of that map was so obviously clear.
OpenStreetMap is built by a community of mappers that contribute and maintain data about anything notable, from a stretch of motorway to a humble tree. A majority of what is on the map comes from what they actually saw. What you see is what you get.
The remainder comes from non-copyrighted sources, such as dataset donations from the likes of MapBox to help newbies get started, other ODbL compatible data like nananananananana NaPTAN!… and legislative texts from most countries.
This is why OpenStreetMap is one of the most accurate and up to date maps in the world. When the new Indian State of Telangana came into effect on 2 June 2014, PlaneMad immediately uploaded the necessary boundaries, in the right location. BAM! Just like that.
OpenStreetMap knows that because anyone can contribute to the map, vandalism can happen: however, OpenStreetMap will quickly revert such edits faster than the time it takes to top-up your Oyster card, and deal with them like the Terminator: Hasta la vista! The chances of downloading vandalised data is one in a googol, and even then the end user can catch and correct most vandalism in minutes.
Judging by the screenshots in the BBC article, the Maybe the UK Department for Transport should quit Google and come to us. Once you get used to OpenStreetMap, you’ll never see Google in the same way.
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