 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 are the way to go.
Gear which supports your mapping in the field
See Field Gear – A list of ideas for personal & vehicle gear to carry with you in the field
Main article: Long journeys
In some cases, you may be away from a computer for an extended period, and the number of trackpoints your GPS holds can become a severely limiting factor. You may need to increase the interval between trackpoints, consider using a different model of GPS, and plan ahead for extra battery capacity.
In general you should keep your traveling to public rights of way, although there can be some exceptions (such as an access road into a camp site for example). Use your common sense, if a driveway is labelled 'No Trespassing' then respect the sign and do not enter.
When taking photographs which will later be made public, treat the property as you'd expect yours to be treated. Intrusive photographs are not needed in order to map the streets, you might question whether street number signs are 'fair game' – in rural areas these can be useful as they may be the only way to confirm the name of the public road leading to the property/address.
There's also a page for more detailed analysis of restrictions on photography and national differences.
Physically Securing Your Device
If traveling with a lot of gear and/or when there's a risk of dropping/losing your GPS unit, it's good to rig up your GPS so it attaches to you. Here's an example photo. Just attach beaner to a secure d-ring or loop on your belt/vest/pack etc. Attaching bright colour flagging ribbon is very helpful to find the device if you do drop it in a place where it blends into the terrain like in forested regions. (This setup also works great for other types of gear as well ie. field book, compass, range finder etc.)
An alternative useful for winter sports is to insert the device into the loop in the strap of your goggles (as shown in the second photo). The device should be sufficiently secured, has a good reception and you have both hands free. For additional security, a cord with a