Vela Maps?
CoMaps has been my main map for a while now after using Organic Maps, and traffic calculation has alwsys been a downside of open source projects like these.
I recently stumbled upon Vela Maps, an open source app that uses Open Street Maps, and integrates Google Maps' traffic analytics and place search "anonymously" (logged out browser queries). Not degoogled, but a nice option. How do they do this? What does the CoMaps community think?
8 replies
So it's a vibe coded map app that just asks Google for traffic data? you might as well just use Google maps in your browser if it's that big of a deal for you
To be honest, from the point that you start using google, reliability goes down so much that the usage of AI on top becomes less of a bottleneck. E.g. the bugs would more frequently bite you that originate from google's actions than AI code. Like the struggle of yt-dlp and NewPipe with YouTube.
Plus, I feel a bit bad expecting people to dig through proprietary google interfaces.
That being said, I'd still skip the project because I'd rather stick with FOSS. Maybe if I'd drive a car instead of a bike, I'd feel different, but as it is now, I can easily stay with CoMaps.
Google Maps in the browser does not offer navigation.
it does though? I'm not turning on location services for it, but it shows me the path and the start button.
Those are directions. That's not the same thing as navigation.
At the SOTM they announced they are working on traffic time integration, i don't think we have already a date for the release. Minute 15:40 https://www.comaps.app/news/2026-09-14/comaps-at-state-of-the-map-2026/
some people on lemmy were posting about magic earth https://www.magicearth.com/
it's not FOSS but it uses OSM.
we tried it for about a year. Navigation is better but we didn't need "traffic calculation". I'm sure others who are still on it would have better feedback about it.
It may be your degoogled solution 🤷
I used to use magic earth but i switched for some reason -- maybe they moved live traffic behind a subscription? I can't remember.
Anyway, Here We Go is free and has live traffic