Passenger uses OpenStreetMap (OSM) in order to provide location search and journey planning.
OSM is a collaborative project to create an editable map of the world, this is done by creating nodes (a single location), ways (a set of points to build up a polygon) and relations (an ordered list of nodes/ways/relations).
By using OSM, we make use of all the existing contributions and anyone can easily improve the dataset, rather than having to maintain your own dataset or be entirely reliant on a 3rd party.
For further information on OSM, see the Getting Involved guide and the Beginners' guide.
Continue to the next article on Editing OpenStreetMap: Contributing to OpenStreetMap.