Improved Quality in OpenStreetMap Road Network for pgRouting

Sun, 28 Dec 2025 05:01:00 GMT

Recent changes in the software bundled in PgOSM Flex resulted in unexpected improvements when using OpenStreetMap roads data for routing. The short story: routing with PgOSM Flex 1.2.0 is faster, easier, and produces higher quality data for routing! I came to this conclusion after completing a variety of testing with the old and new versions of PgOSM Flex. This post outlines my testing and findings.

The concern I had before this testing was that the variety of changes involved in preparing data for routing in PgOSM Flex 1.2.0 might have degraded routing quality. I am beyond thrilled with what I found instead. Quality of the generated network didn't suffer at all, it was a major win!

What Changed?

The changes started with PgOSM Flex 1.1.1 by bumping internal versions used in PgOSM Flex to Postgres 18, PostGIS 3.6, osm2pgsql 2.2.0, and Debian 13. There was not expected to be any significant changes bundled in that release. After v1.1.1 was released, it came to my attention that pgRouting 4.0 had been released and that update broke the routing instructions in PgOSM Flex's documentation. This was thankfully reported by Travis Hathaway who also helped verify the updates to the process.

pgRouting 4 removed the pgr_nodeNetwork, pgr_createTopology, and pgr_analyzeGraph functions. Removing these functions was the catalyst for the changes made in PgOSM Flex 1.2.0. I had used those pgr_* functions as part of my core process in data preparation for routing for as long as I have used pgRouting.

After adjusting the documentation it became clear there were performance issues using the replacement functions in pgRouting 4.0, namely in pgr_separateTouching(). The performance issue in the pgRouting function is reported as pgrouting#3010. Working through the performance challenges resulted in PgOSM Flex 1.1.2 and ultimately PgOSM Flex 1.2.0 that now uses a custom procedure to prepare the edge network far better suited to OpenStreetMap data.

Local LLM with OpenWeb UI and Ollama

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 05:01:00 GMT

Like much of the world, I have been exploring capabilities and realities of LLMs and other generative tools for a while now. I am focused on using the technology with the framing of my technology-focused work, plus my other common scoping on data privacy and ethics. I want basic coding help (SQL, Python, Docker, PowerShell, DAX), ideation, writing boilerplate code, and leveraging existing procedures. Naturally, I want this available offline in a private and secure environment. I have been focused on running a local LLM with RAG capabilities and having control over what data goes where, and how it is used. Especially data about my conversations with the generative LLM.

This post collects my notes on what my expectations and goals are, and outlines the components I am using currently, and thoughts on my path forward.

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Improved Quality in OpenStreetMap Road Network for pgRouting

What Changed?

Local LLM with OpenWeb UI and Ollama