<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">When mapping in Japan, I map all sidewalks. as a Califorinian, where sidewalks are common and usually follow the road alignment at all times, I understand OSM’s tenancy to map sidewalks are merely an attribute of the road - but when dealing with the sidewalks in Japan, they oftentimes follow their own alignments and take shortcuts roads cannot - or are abruptly ended to force peds onto footbridges, tunnles, or alrernate routes.<div class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">almost all minor and residential roads have no shoulders nor sidewalks, so this applies to tertiary and above. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">my best friend, by far, is “unmarked crossing”</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Here’s one, doing it’s job. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/689318021#map=17/36.61939/140.15490" class="">https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/689318021#map=17/36.61939/140.15490</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Think about how a ped would get to Nikko station from a school or park on the east side of the river - the route they would take is very different than the route of a car. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">This applies to *so many places* in suburban Japan, not just Tokyo or other city centers. small farming towns have irregular ped access - all of it must be mapped (where I am). </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">when linking sidewalks to roads, usually where sidewalks abruptly end, or where a street intersects with the road (but not the sidewalk), I will use unmarked crossing to allow proper routing of foot routers. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/490803227" class="">https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/490803227</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">one sidewalk abruptly ends, and people will cross over to the other. this also links in into the road, but still illustrating the end of the actual sidewalk </div><div class="">. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/490803228#map=19/36.42382/137.87325" class="">https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/490803228#map=19/36.42382/137.87325</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">a hundred meters away from the one above. a T intersection has a sidewalk that dead-ends. people will cross the street to the other sidewalk (and the other other road. a crossing is appropriate but unpainted. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/689318021#map=17/36.61939/140.15490" class="">https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/689318021#map=17/36.61939/140.15490</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">This section of sidewalk (including the continued segments on either end of it) exemplifies the sidewalks of Japan:</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">they begin and end with no warning, dumping any foot traffic into the road (not the shoulder, but into a car lane). </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">- they do not interact well with roads that “T” into their parallel street (no consideration for peds trying to cross the road there, unless there is a crosswalk)</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">- larger ones are used as agricultural access as well. this is true of cycling roads too.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">the “unmarked crossing” is how I link these back into the road, how I put a connection to roads that peds would like to access but is not served by a crosswalk, and how I mark where they end when the road interrupts them at a common intersection - </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">“unmarked crossing” is my “unpainted crosswalk” and “sidewalk link” substitution.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Javbw</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> </div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div></body></html>