[Accessibility] Mapping complex road junctions with pedestrian crossings

[Peter Wendorff]

Hi John.
Welcome on this list.
I'm sighted too, but working on the Look-and-Listen-Map currently and 
did my bachelor thesis about navigation for the blind.
In the thesis I proposed a tagging scheme similar to what you propose here:
A way cutting the street, where the common nodes are tagged as 
highway=crossing, crossing=* and a node between the middle node and the 
"border" node tagged with sloped_curb=* and tactile_paving=*.
I did not tag the way itself different than any footway, but yes, that 
may be a good idea.

Let's see, what others say about this idea, first.

regards
Peter


Am 10.02.2012 14:52, schrieb John Sturdy:
> Hi,
>
> before I raise something for discussion I'd better introduce myself
> --- I'm a sighted mapper (and professional software developer) and I
> have a blind friend who's already on at least as many mailing lists as
> she wants, so when I got into OSM I said I'd watch out for interesting
> developments... and I have some experience of helping her learn new
> routes, so I have a second-hand idea of what might be useful...
>
> The question has come up, on my regional mailing list, of how much
> detail should be included in mapping a complex road junction, one of
> the examples given having several pedestrian crossings with "islands"
> (I think some people call them "refuges", that might be a US term).  I
> suggested that the islands should be mapped explicitly, rather than
> being left as a gap between two pieces of road, and that the fences on
> them should be mapped, with a specific view to this being useful to
> the blind.
>
> But on further thought, I've realized that it might be better to map
> the pedestrian routes through such a crossing, so that it is explicit
> that, for example, on crossing one carriageway and reaching an island,
> that you have to turn left, walk to the other end of the island, press
> another crossing button, and turn right to cross the second
> carriageway.
>
> I see that Lulu-Ann has already proposed a related tag,
> land_use=traffic_island (presumably an area), and of course there's
> already highway=crossing and crossing=island (which I think are
> expected to be nodes); what I'm suggesting is a type of way, that
> shows the exact route through a complex crossing (it is common in the
> UK for the two crossings onto a mid-road island not to be facing each
> other, I think this is typically if they have separately signalled
> traffic lights, so you can't walk across in a straight line into a
> stream of traffic controlled by a different light from the one that
> has let you cross the first part).
>
> We could just mark them as "highway=footway" but there's a risk that
> non-blindness-aware mappers might remove them as clutter; I think we
> should use a separate type, that perhaps visual renderers might omit
> or make inconspicuous.
>
> I suggest that tactile paving and crossing buttons could be used as
> nodes on these ways, so that the way will hold together all the pieces
> of information useful for a blind person using that crossing.
>
> Anyway, I thought I'd better ask where I can get some answers from
> people with first-hand experience of non-visual navigation, rather
> than just guessing from second-hand experience.  (I'll ask my blind
> friend too, she's not yet involved with OSM though.)
>
> __John
>
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