Reading OSM Data Using Python

OpenStreetMap is a free editable community driven map.  The data can be downloaded in full from planet.openstreetmap.org, but you can also pull smaller sections from various web services.

For world pulls, I wouldn't recommend this code because you will run out of memory.  For smaller areas, same between 1-10 MB this should work depending on your desktop's specifications.

import xml
from xml.dom.minidom import parse
 
data = {}
keys = []
 
ways = {}
wkeys = []

relations = {}
rkeys = []

xmls = [r"c:\temp\small.osm"]
for f in xmls:
    dom = xml.dom.minidom.parse(f)
    #  parse out osm nodes
    #
    for n in dom.getElementsByTagName("node"):
        nid = n.getAttribute("id")
        data[nid] = {}
        data[nid]["lat"] = n.getAttribute("lat")
        data[nid]["lon"] = n.getAttribute("lon")
        for tag in n.getElementsByTagName("tag"):
            if(tag.hasAttribute("k")):
                k = tag.getAttribute("k")
                if(k not in keys):
                    keys.append(k)
                if(tag.hasAttribute("v")):
                    data[nid][k] = tag.getAttribute("v")
    # parse out osm ways/polygons
    #
    for n in dom.getElementsByTagName("way"):
        wid = n.getAttribute("id")
        ways[wid] = {}
        ways[wid]['ref'] = []
        ways[wid]['geomType'] = ""
        for nd in n.getElementsByTagName('nd'):
            if nd.hasAttribute('ref'):
                ref = nd.getAttribute('ref')
                ways[wid]['ref'].append(ref)
            del nd
        for tag in n.getElementsByTagName("tag"):
            if tag.hasAttribute("k") and \
               tag.hasAttribute('v'):
                k = tag.getAttribute("k")
                if k not in wkeys:
                    wkeys.append(k)
                ways[wid][k] = tag.getAttribute('v')
            del tag
        first = ways[wid]['ref'][0]
        last = ways[wid]['ref'][len(ways[wid]['ref'])-1]
        if ways[wid]['ref'][0] == ways[wid]['ref'][len(ways[wid]['ref'])-1]:
            ways[wid]['geomType'] = "polygon"
        else:
            ways[wid]['geomType'] = "polyline"
    for n in dom.getElementsByTagName('relation'):
        rid = n.getAttribute('id')
        relations[rid] = {}
        relations[rid]['member'] = []
        for mem in n.getElementsByTagName('member'):
            member = {}
            if mem.hasAttribtue('type'):
                member['type'] = mem.getAttribute('type')
            if mem.hasAttribute('ref'):
                member['ref'] = mem.getAttribute('ref')
            if mem.hasAttribute('role'):
                member['role'] = mem.getAttribute('role')
            relations[rid]['member'].append(member)
            del mem
        for tag in mem.getElementsByTagName("tag"):
            if tag.hasAttribute("k") and \
               tag.hasAttribute('v'):
                k = tag.getAttribute("k")
                relations[rid][k] = tag.getAttribute('v')            
            del tag
# do stuff with nodes, ways (lines), and polygons like converting the data from dictionaries to feature classes or shapefiles!

OSM files are just XML files that can be parsed with various xml processing tools in python. Some common ones are the minidom (core to python), lxml, and beautiful soup.

It is not the most efficient piece of code, but it demonstrates the power of python.

Enjoy, and feel free to make tweaks!