FAQ Updated, Feb 20, 2013 Michael Smith of Las Vegas wrote: Q:The speeds are all 45mph. Is the data dependable? A: The data contains info from govts, states, apps, hand-edits. If you want an area cleaned up, tell us. We can fix it quick. We have a cool edit tool and we always have more state data that needs to go in. Q: The map shows a big GREEN line of dots on the left. Is the map broke? A: Zoom in 20x to see a nice dot-map. Zoom in all the way, then zoom more... We use sql. If you look at the whole USA, we used to show random 10dots. Then people said, "you only have 10signs, whats up with that". So we show the first 64 which ends up on the left as a big line. Andrew Jones of Lincoln, CA wrote and asked: I'm interested in using your data in a smart phone app. Is there any documentation on how to use your database and how to access it and the fields it contains? What about a REST API with JSON or XML results? Also, what are the terms of use? Thanks for any help! Andrew: I like to answer here so my fingers don't get so tired... Hope that is ok. There is php code, sample apps, tools all pretty solid. Look for "sample apps" on wikipedia. People like you and me contribute signs. They are the copyright holders and I call them the owners of this co-op. If your app shows their names in the corner or such, there is no charge. If you don't want to let your app show their names, then we ask for a donation. Its the same as any copyright. If you credit us, its ok, if you don't then we expect a donation. The amount is up to you. I email the contributors and they vote on your amount. The last time we accepted money, it was $200. It goes to servers, not me. All our money in and out is listed on www.tn.gov/sos/charity. Others have asked if they can pay-later or such on their apps success, we don't offer that. The amount of work I have to do with you up front is tremendous, so we expect a donation or some partial donation up front. Another common question is: How accurate is the data? Its not that great, but always improving. Its also worldwide. We get data from apps, websites, Tigerdata-estimates, State-databases. You can poke around here and see what areas matter to you. http://www.wikispeedia.org/l/maps.html Soon we will have money to hire people to improve spots our customers care about, like Lincoln-CA for instance ;-) Another question I get is competitors. Our competitors are State-Governments, Open-Street-Maps, Navteq. Thats why we exist, because we are the only database focusing on speed limits. Thats all we do. We also do it with no venture capital demands so you could feel good about us staying around. -jim ---------motivation---------------- On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 4:15 PM, Todd xxxxx wrote: i'm interested in the api for speed limits for an iphone utility that will teach you how to stay in certain speed ranges, but also how to coast without foot on the gas so as to maximize fuel economy. Where might I be able to see the API. Also does your database handle school zones? --------FAQ for wikiSPEEDia.org Open speed Limit Database----------------- 1) what I get is a way to download speed limit sign points by lat/long/speed within a 4 point bounding box. yes. 2) do you account for school zones and times? not supported completely yet. 3) do you account for construction zones ? (i'm guessing no since they are transitory) Not started. 4) driving along a city street, and within 00.02 lat/longs there are 5 limits available to choose. b) how do you rightly choose the right one? Have you worked up a reliable algorithm to distinguish the limit on the street that is being driven as opposed to the street that might have a sidestreet with lower limit? esp when the as the crow flies distance to the sign might be less, but you are not driving on that side street? There seem to be so many road conditions and variables that it seems to be a guess and hope it's the right guess. Is there more to it than that? yes, download the API and a sample app here: http://code.google.com/p/speedlimit/source/browse/ 4a) I see #4 as the big technological hurdle - knowing which one to pick. Because if I pick wrong, then people wont use it and will give negative reviews and there goes the ship... The algorithm has been used for 2 years. It works great. Now you are asking better questions. You are correct. You have to allow people a super easy way to correct any wrong limit. This crowdsource is the most important part of both our jobs. Make it fun, easy. They get put in as the copyright holder. The donation you pay goes to the wikispeedia charity and is tax deductible. Some of that will go to hire people to fill in speedtraps, perhaps using your wonderful app! 5) whats it cost? We are a charity. 6) I will not donate to try it out to see if it works - my first attempts at trying a 0.01 lat long bounding box around Dallas tx returned zero results... I know you will be happy with the system. The question is, How much time must I spend bringing you up to speed? For that we request a donation. We are a charity, struggling to provide something useful. Consider a $5 donation. 7) I would be willing to give a small donation up front but I'm a small operation as well and would rather negotiate a percentage per 100 apps sold or something like that to support your efforts We are a charity. We ask, "what do we need", not "what can we make". We can't get into that level of commercialism. 8) How many signs do you have? Our 27million speed limits worldwide are copyrighted by the 300+ contributors, so you need to have it in writing. 9) Here is a summary of the API. There are 3 commands: submit, query, delete. SEE #4 above to download source code... How to submit a MPH sign (dummy=69 always). (Swap for KPH) url = new URL("http://www.wikispeedia.org/a/process_submit_bb3.php" + "&mlat=" + ( myLatitude)) + "&mlon=" + ( myLongitude)) + "&malt_meters=" + ( myAltitudeInMeters)) + "&mmph=" + ( mySpeedInMPH)) + "&mkph=" + ( dummy ) + "&mtag=" + ( name ) + "&mcog=" + ( courseOverGroundInDegrees ) + "&mhours=" + ( optional_not_usedPresently ) + "&memail=" + ( email_address_of_the_submitter ); Here is an example that works in Internet Explorer. http://www.wikispeedia.org/a/process_submit_bb3.php?mlat=35.2&mlon=-89.2&mmph=55&mkph=69&mtag=jimbo&mcog=359&mhours=9to5&memail=jim@jim.com You can see it show up immediately here: http://www.wikispeedia.org/l/maps.html How to query a box: url = new URL("http://www.wikispeedia.org/a/marks_bb2.php" + "?name=all" + "&nelat=" + ( myLatitude + .002) + "&swlat=" + ( myLatitude - .002) + "&nelng=" + ( myLongitude + .002) + "&swlng=" + ( myLongitude - .002)); How to delete a point: url = new URL("http://www.wikispeedia.org/a/delete_bb2.php" + "?name=all" + "&nelat=" + ( pointLat + .00001) + "&swlat=" + ( pointLat - .00001) + "&nelng=" + ( pointLon + .00001) + "&swlng=" + ( pointLon - .00001)); 9a) How do I test that these php commands work? Zoom in and look at the points here: http://www.wikispeedia.org/browse/maps.html 10) How are you funded? We are copyrighted, donation funded, so donations are appreciated. For commercial works, donations are expected ;-) 11) I want to build a cruise control with this. Lets see. Ok. Cruise control look here http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-GPS-cruise-control-using-your-Android-iPh/ 12) I have more questions. Can I email them to you directly? Read everything on wikispeedia.org and then on en.wikipedia.org/wiki/wikispeedia then ask here http://groups.google.com/group/wikispeedia then email me questions. Other people are involved, make them work! Cheers Jim Pruett, Founder wikiSPEEDia.org wikispeedia@googlegroups.com