We can now pull the most current US government index of all roads directly into OpenStreetMap for tracing. Just go to OpenStreetMap.org, click Edit, and choose the "New & Misaligned TIGER Roads" option from the layer menu. "TIGER" is the name of the US road database managed by the Census Bureau. The TIGER layer will reveal in yellow any roads that have been corrected in or added to TIGER since 2006 and that have not also been corrected in OpenStreetMap. Zoom in on any yellow road to see how TIGER now maps it, verify it against the aerial imagery, and correct it in OpenStreetMap.
Pick yellow roads to update in OpenStreetMap with the latest TIGER data from the US Census Bureau. Use the aerial imagery to verify.
Get an overview at lower zoom levels to identify areas that need improvement.
If you'd like to use this layer in the desktop editor JOSM rather than the web editor, use this z/x/y URL to pull it in:
http://{switch:a,b,c}.tiles.mapbox.com/v3/enf.ho204tap,enf.ho20a3n1,enf.game1617/{zoom}/{x}/{y}.png
Configuring JOSM with the TIGER tracing layer