The Best of the Rest

The Best of Rest is a new weekly round-up of some of the best maps created with some of the 'other' online map API's.


Superfreedraw uses Leaflet to provide a blank map, on which anyone is free to draw a big penis or write 'Yo Momma'.

Some of the user contributions might not be very clever but this is a very clever use of Leaflet. I also like the fact that Superfreedraw publish the map tile data once a month. I'm not sure why anyone would want these user contributed drawings as a map tile set but it is a nice touch.


How fast is LAFD? is another map created with Leaflet, this time using OpenStreetMap tiles.This map from The Los Angeles Times shows the response times of the LA Fire Department.

This map is a really good example of how geographical visualisations can often be very useful. For example, the map shows a clear corridor of danger running from Bel Air to Hollywood, where residents appear unlikely to have their calls responded to in less than 8-10 minutes.


Metropho.rs is a map where all the countries are renamed based on metaphors used in Twitter - where one country has been described as being like another country or geographical location. For example, according to Collin Jo, "Africa is the Cleveland, Ohio of the entire planet". Therefore on Metropho.rs Africa has been renamed Cleveland.

You can click on the map labels to read the original Twitter country comparison. The map was created with the Modest Maps javascript library.