[Tagging] Sidewalk Tagging for Routing

johnw johnw at mac.com
Tue Nov 24 15:39:45 UTC 2015


> On Nov 24, 2015, at 11:32 PM, Martin Koppenhoefer <dieterdreist at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> the road, they are quite capable of deciding which side to walk, where
> to cross and whether it is simply easier to walk on the road.


TL;DR:
Although I care more about the rendering than the routing, the routing in this situation needs to be very explicit in places because sidewalks are crazy in some countries. Simple routing may work in most of the globe, but there are some cities/countries where pedestrian access conventions require very explicit mapping and routing. 

~~

I can imagine that this is a non-issue in a lot of places, as I grew up where getting to the other side of the street was not such a big deal, nor was what side of the street you were on a big deal when looking for routing information. 

But there are plenty of places - or at least city centers -  where it is a big deal. 

There are plenty of situations out here in small Japanese towns (let alone Tokyo) where which side of the street you are on is very important for routing, and it is impossible to change sides in a convenient/safe spot after a decision has been made. Some have dead-end sidewalks (that end in walls and a narrow shoulder)  that put you into extremely hazardous situations (being right next to traffic against a wall/guardrail - which they do all the time), or put you onto walkways onto bridges where you cannot take walkways that lead away from the opposite side, or there are access stairs to the pedestrian walkways that run under the bridge that only connect on one side of the bridge (leading to 300 meters or more of walking around the longer route).  as most Japanese towns are in valleys or near water, there are tons of bridges everywhere - some with really weird pedestrian routing restrictions. 

given the absolute psychotic nature of Japanese sidewalks throughout the whole country, explicit sidewalk mapping is a very good thing. I was just in Tokyo this evening - and I used 6 different kinds of footpaths - two were sidewalks with severe access restrictions to keep people out of the street (large steel pipe fencing along the road to keep people from Jaywalking) except at crosswalks, down to one way alleys with the green paths.  choosing the correct side of the street makes a difference for certain ped access bridges to other buildings, to subway and train entrances (which by no means are accessible from the other side - steel pipe barrier and all), or lead to completely different layers and tunnels depending on your side of the road. 


Javbw
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