Plotting shape files with ggmap: clipping when shape file is larger than ggmap

Question

I am having clipping problems when I try to combine ggmap with shape files. The example in Kahle and Wickham (2013: 158) works fine because the raster image from ggmap covers th

Answer 1

Here is my attempt. I often use GADM shapefiles, which you can directly import using the raster package. I subsetted the shape file for NY, NJ and CT. You may not have to do this in the end, but it is probably better to reduce the amount of data. When I drew the map, ggplot automatically removed data points which stay outside of the bbox of the ggmap image. Therefore, I did not have to do any additional work. I am not sure which shapefile you used. But, GADM's data seem to work well with ggmap images. Hope this helps you.

library(raster)
library(rgdal)
library(rgeos)
library(ggplot2)

### Get data (shapefile)
us <- getData("GADM", country = "US", level = 1)

### Select NY and NJ
states <- subset(us, NAME_1 %in% c("New York", "New Jersey", "Connecticut"))

### SPDF to DF
map <- fortify(states)

## Get a map
mymap <- get_map("new york city", zoom = 10, source = "stamen")


ggmap(mymap) +
geom_map(data = map, map = map, aes(x = long, y = lat, map_id = id, group = group))

If you just want lines, the following would be what you are after.

ggmap(mymap) +
geom_path(data = map, aes(x = long, y = lat, group = group))