The Maps of the Week

According to this map the world's straightest roads are in the American Mid-West and the Canadian prairies. How Straight or Bendy are the World's Roads is a Leaflet powered map showing the straightness of the world's roads (or at least all the roads that have so far been added to OpenStreetMap).

Each road on OpenStreetMap has been given a 'bendyness ratio', which was calculated by dividing its length by the straight line difference between its end points. The map is divided into equal sized squares. Each square on the map is then colored by the straightness of all the roads in that square.


Jim Vallandingham has created a number of force-directed maps to powerfully visualize segregation in U.S. cities. In each of the maps the most segregated neighborhoods are animated as they push away from other neighborhoods. The gaps between the neighborhoods is based on the differences in the proportion of the white and black populations in each neighborhood census tract.

Visualizing The Racial Divide includes maps for 13 American cities, including St Louis, Chicago and Baltimore. Select the button for one of the city maps and the areas with the most segregated populations push away from the neighboring areas, while areas of homogeneity stay largely static.

The data is based on the 2010 census and the visualization was created using d3.js.


Hikers, anglers, climbers and other outdoor enthusiasts now have their very own map. The Natural Atlas is a new community driven map for those who love the great outdoors.

Natural Atlas is built upon OpenStreetMap data. The map however has been lovingly styled to provide all the information that the outdoor enthusiast will need from a map. This includes contour lines, tree cover and water features. The map symbols used on the map are National Park Service style icons to show the locations of campsites, picnic areas and other recreation areas.

Currently Natural Atlas covers Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. However Natural Atlas plans to add other states over the next few months.