[Eridrus]

I'm sort of with the other poster on this thread that it shouldn't be that hard. The overall product is impressive, but every action is done in the context of an existing product where step 1 isn't to write Maps from scratch, but to understand the system (with help from documentation, coworkers, etc) and then see how you can make a change to achieve the desired outcome.

Maps is sort of an outlier IMO since so much of it is done on a canvas, rather than traditional web tech, but if you hardcoded some street geometry, would it be that hard to render it to a canvas and then make it draggable? Then make it clickable, etc?

It sort of sounds like you're having a tough time breaking the large project that is maps down to the individual tasks, maybe do a side projects where you go from idea to prototype yourself, and then see how you can improve it? Hell, maybe just try making google maps yourself? start with a really shitty version that's black and white and work your way up?

[Piskvorrr]

You don't even need to go for Google maps - there's plenty of space in OpenStreetMap, and the tech is apparently similar.