[Accessibility] Best way to map sidewalks ?

[Clifford Snow]

On Sat, Jan 16, 2021 at 10:49 AM pierrick pratter via Accessibility <
accessibility at openstreetmap.org> wrote:

>
> I'm confuse on the way to add sidewalk data in OSM, it seems that there is
> two distinct way of mapping them as they are complementary and one should
> not be wildly used over the other.
>
> For me the logical and easier way (and maybe easier for routing systems
> too) is to add the sidewalk tag on the road and if the sidewalk differ or
> is blocked by a obstacle that is not meant to be cross, I draw the sidewalk
> and tag it with footway=sidewalk but it is rare as almost all sidewalk in
> my country (FR) are part of the road.
>
> So I wanted to have feedback from day to day users of tools that use each
> kind of mapping and also from developer of those tools, to know in the end
> which way is the best.
>

I started using the sidewalk as an attribute of the road method of adding
sidewalks. When I learned from UW's Taskar Center for Accessible Technology
that routing on sidewalks was difficult when the sidewalk was an attribute
of the road, I switched to mapping sidewalks as separate objects. Now
routers, those specifically built for sidewalks, can successfully find a
suitable route for pedestrians. This is particularly helpful for those with
limited mobility such as those in a wheelchair. You can learn more at
opensidewalks.com, a website the university built to explain their strategy
including recommendations for editing in OpenStreetMap. They have a demo
router running at AccessMap.io for Seattle, WA. Seattle is a very hilly
city that can be difficult to walk up hills even for the average person.

Best,
Clifford

-- 
@osm_washington
www.snowandsnow.us
OpenStreetMap: Maps with a human touch
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