[Accessibility] Best way to map sidewalks ?

[lejun]

Le 17/01/2021 à 01:55, Clifford Snow a écrit :
>
> On Sat, Jan 16, 2021 at 10:49 AM pierrick pratter via Accessibility
> <accessibility at openstreetmap.org
> <mailto: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 <http://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.

One massive drawback to using the sidewalk tag on the associated highway
is, as stated in the wiki
(https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Sidewalks), that you miss a lot of
potential information between the two such as parking_lane or even the
kerb which I consider to be essential to wheelchair users.

Moreover, as a french user, a lot of cities change the sidewalk into
shared spaces like the « Voie verte » (FR:C115/116) which is a shared
space with cyclists and horses. The consensus seems to be a separate way
tagged as a path designated for pedestrians, bicycle (and horses).

--
Lejun - Groupe Local OpenStreetMap Bourgogne-Franche-Comté