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There are a great number of different audio mapping styles, with different accuracy, level of detail, using different hardware and software. There are easy techniques for the beginner and difficult but extremely powerful techniques for the advanced mapper. Check out the completely restructured main article.
Main article: Video mapping
For those driving alone who can't stop to take notes: mount a video camera (or digital camera in "movie" mode) somewhere that it can see roadsigns, and leave it recording for the duration of your journey. You can combine this with audio mapping (speaking road names and information into the video camera's microphone, e.g. "turning left into Darwin Drive").
Afterwards, note the timestamp of anything interesting in the video (e.g. "Shops on the left between 1:32 and 1:37") and correlate that with the GPS tracklog. It's also easy to correlate features seen on the video with the tracklog ("I turned left here on the GPS track, but the road still continues ahead"; or "I turned left here onto a cobblestone road").
Main article: Photogrammetry
Photogrammetry is a technique used by many mapping agencies and companies to gather data. When you have two photos of a scene from different positions it's possible to extract the geometry of the scene. This can be done manually or by software and by using this, features such as buildings, road shape and amenities can be added to the map with a high relational accuracy.
Main article: Armchair mapping
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Quite popular method, but it has several drawbacks.
Colourizing the map
Once all the tracks have been added and updated, you are ready to begin colourizing the map. Some areas can be added from memory, but not all areas have clearly defined boundaries. It is important to make sure the streets (the GPS tracks and TIGER data) are properly updated first because often times they form boundaries for other areas.
You can use aerial imagery (e.g. the default ones in our editors) to fill in such things as parks, shopping centres, hospitals, golf courses, lakes and airports. Some things that aren't marked on the map include cemeteries, campsites, churches, schools, buildings and city zones. These areas can't be filled in with a GPS.
One way to start off is by referencing a directory for a certain category (i.e. churches, schools) with their addresses and then cross referencing them on a map. Once you know where they are, you can begin adding nodes and land use into OSM.
Most times cities and counties will have colour-coded municipal zoning maps that can be used to fill in the land use for residential, agricultural, retail, commercial and industrial. These maps are often dividing into specific categories (e.g. light industrial, heavy industrial). The zoning maps can be loaded into an image editor such as Photoshop and then the zone colours can be combined. It doesn't matter what colours you pick just so you know what colours are what.
You can use a program like Map Rectifier to warp an image so it can be used in OSM. Once it has been warped, it can be loaded into JOSM in a WMS layer. From there, you can trace the zones and add the appropriate land use tag.
You may be able to find a GIS map from a city or county that has park info on it. You can view that shapefile data in a program like ArcGIS. Once the info is on the screen correctly, you can do a screen shot and then use that as your layer to warp in May Rectify. Shouldn't be a problem with copyright but you'll want to check and make sure.
Depending on the type of tracks which you intend to create, some transportation means are more suited than others. Obviously, for tracking rails and motorways, you have to use an allowed vehicle. Generally, a car is good to track all the length of a motorway, where little special features appear. A bike is good for medium distance tracks, where you might want to stop frequently to mark points of interests or intersections. For tracking residential areas with dense features, inline skates or a skateboard/longboard