[Accessibility] Best way to map sidewalks ?

[pierrick pratter]

Opensidewalk proposal is still in "draft" status since 2016 and has never been voted on and AccessMap.io doesn't seem to use OSM for sidewalk data, I have compared the map of seattle and OSM and part of the city are mostly not mapped with sidewalks at all way there not even the crossing nodes, so the routing system seem to use a different DB

The only drawback I see from sidewalks as metadata is geometry as parkings lanes have their tags ( https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:parking:lane ) and kerb height can be added on the crossing node or on the road itself.

Routing system already exploit elevation data like Osmand without needing the tags on each way.

An app that I tried for visually impaired people is GetThere ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.LewLasher.getthere&hl=en_US&gl=US ), and it seems to base itself on the structure of the street (street-crossings and main street itself) to route it's users.

For wheelchairs I only found OpenRouteService ( https://maps.openrouteservice.org/ ) that works for Europe only and require to have everything mapped as a separate way, but it is not because OpenRouteService is built this way that the OSM community as to map this way.

This way of mapping as to be thoroughly discussed, I didn't find any up to date talk with a lot a participant that ended with a voted proposal and I feel that it as not been thought in the way the OSM database is built, as sidewalks are part of a road like parkings lanes or even cycleways it is logical and easier to maintain than a whole cities with interconnected lanes.


This is why I wanted to have feedback from associations, or even users themselves because I don't see this schema used anywhere else than some cities and our job as contributors is to keep the data as easy as possible ?

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‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
On Sunday, January 17, 2021 8:01 AM, lejun <lejun at gmx.fr> wrote:

> 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
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