bikerouter

I think it's time to set up a dedicated #Overpass server for #Bikerouter.

The well-known public instances have all been struggling with availability and performance lately. I suspect this is the result of an AI bot army that has now completely spiraled out of control. I've noticed a massive spike in bot requests across various projects recently, so the connection is hard to miss.

I put together a test setup over the weekend and will run it for a while to see how it performs. If everything works out, I'll need to rent a server with enough storage for the data and run my own Overpass instance.

This isn't something I'm particularly eager to do, as it takes both time and money, but the alternative isn't appealing either: the Overpass layers are simply too useful to lose.

What does an Overpass server do? It is used for structured querying of the OpenStreetMap database and is employed in Bikerouter, for example, in the built-in POI overlays. It can also be used to create self-configured overlays, for instance to make bicycle streets easily recognizable on the map (see screenshot).

Apr 20 at 10:55amWeb
Show threadNakanerApr 20
@bikerouter
Why don't you just create vectortiles containig the needed POIs? Creating vectortiles from a filtered planet dump or a continously updated PostgreSQL database is less painful (i.e. stable and reliable) than trying to run Overpass yourself.
With PostgreSQL you could even skip vector tilea completely and install Postpass.
Show threadbikerouterApr 20

@nakaner For static POI layers that would be possible, but custom layers can be created by the user from arbitrary Overpass queries, e.g. nwr[bicycle_road=yes][smoothness=excellent]. I don't think that's a problem where vector tiles are able to provide a good solution.

Postpass, on the other hand, might indeed be an option 🤔

Show threadNakanerApr 20

@bikerouter
With Postpass, you can add partial indixes for the most frequent queries. Example:

CREATE INDEX p_fuel ON postpass_point USING gist(geom) WHERE tags @> '{"amenity": "fuel"}'::jsonb;

Show threadbikerouterApr 20

@nakaner Well, there goes another weekend, I suppose ;-)

I'll have a closer look.

Show threadMoritz W Apr 21
@bikerouter not sure if helpful, but i recently stumbled onto onroutemap and in the changelog i noticed Nico recently switched from Overpass to PostGIS and he states it increases performance by a lot
https://onroutemap.de/de/about
OnRouteMap | Ãœber OnRouteMap

OnRouteMap: Finde Supermärkte, Tankstellen, Trinkwasser, Unterkünfte und mehr entlang deiner GPX-Route. Kostenlos, ohne Werbung, ohne Tracking. Für Radfahrer, Wanderer und Läufer.

Show threadbikerouterApr 21
@moritzw I’ll look into Postpass as an alternative as soon as I find the time.