Error with package "RgoogleMaps" HTTP status was '403 Forbidden'

Question

I am trying to make maps with RgoogleMaps. My code used to work this morning but now I get this error :

map.lyon <- GetMap(center=c(45.77338,4.856039), zoom = 15, destfile = "tile1.png", maptype = "mobile")
Error in download.file(url, destfile, mode = "wb", quiet = TRUE) :
  cannot open URL 'http://maps.google.com/maps/api/staticmap?center=45.77338,4.856039&zoom=15&size=640x640&maptype=mobile&format=png32&sensor=true'
    In addition: Warning message:
    In download.file(url, destfile, mode = "wb", quiet = TRUE) :
      cannot open: HTTP status was '403 Forbidden'

I made a lot of maps this morning (maybe about 200), is there a limitation in the requests of Google Maps API ?

I also tried to use OpenStreetMaps instead of Google Maps, always with RgoogleMaps package but this does not work either (although it's just a simple example of code found on a website), the error is very similar, here is the code :

library(RgoogleMaps)
lat_c<-51.47393
lon_c<-7.22667
bb<-qbbox(lat = c(lat_c[1]+0.01, lat_c[1]-0.01), lon = c(lon_c[1]+0.03, lon_c[1]-0.03))
OSM.map<-GetMap.OSM(lonR=bb$lonR, latR=bb$latR, scale = 20000, destfile="bochum.png")

And here is what I have when I run it :

   > library(RgoogleMaps)
   > lat_c<-51.47393
   > lon_c<-7.22667
   > bb<-qbbox(lat = c(lat_c[1]+0.01, lat_c[1]-0.01), lon = c(lon_c[1]+0.03, lon_c[1]-0.03))
   > OSM.map<-GetMap.OSM(lonR=bb$lonR, latR=bb$latR, scale = 20000, destfile="bochum.png")
[1] "http://tile.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/export?bbox=7.19637,51.46383,7.25697,51.48403&scale=20000&format=png"
trying URL 'http://tile.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/export?bbox=7.19637,51.46383,7.25697,51.48403&scale=20000&format=png'
 Error in download.file(url, destfile, mode = "wb", quiet = FALSE) : 
 cannot open URL 'http://tile.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/export?bbox=7.19637,51.46383,7.25697,51.48403&scale=20000&format=png'
 In addition: Warning message:
 In download.file(url, destfile, mode = "wb", quiet = FALSE) :
   cannot open: HTTP status was '403 Forbidden'

I don't understand what the problem is. Is there another package I could use? Basically I just need to have a background map with major cities and roads in the area and be able to plot points above it.

Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

You can try the package ggmap, it lets you download maps from google or osm and you can add data using ggplot2.

Answer 2

If you use RStudio: 1 - go to Tools 2 - Global Options 3 - Packagees 4 - under CRAN mirror: click on change - you select Global (CDN) - RStudio (you select different option depend on where you at)