[Tagging] Proposal for standardization of sidewalk schema (+ import)

Tor torsm.news at gmail.com
Tue Aug 2 22:27:41 UTC 2016


> 1. aug. 2016 kl. 23:35 skrev Meg Drouhard <mdrouhar at uw.edu>:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> Our team is proposing a standardization of sidewalk tagging conventions in OSM to simplify pedestrian network annotations and better represent the physical reality of sidewalk ways.  This proposal is particularly concerned with features of sidewalks that may aid or impede travel for people with limited mobility.
> 
> Our schema proposal is available here: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/sidewalk_schema.
> 
> You can also read more about our project and group here: www.opensidewalks.com.
> 
> Through the Imports list, we are also proposing to jump start sidewalk annotation by importing open municipal data from the city of Seattle (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Seattle,_Washington/Sidewalk_Import).
> 
> We appreciate any feedback you may have either through our discussion pages or by email.

I’ve read through the proposal, and I’m trying to figure out what you are actually proposing.

What’s new here? Both highway=footway + footway=sidewalk and highway=footway + footway=crossing are already in use and documented on the wiki, so that’s obviously not new. Maybe there’s something new to the way kerbs should be mapped. I don’t know; I’ve never bothered with mapping kerbs.

I wonder, what does this boil down to then? Do you simply propose to deprecate highway=* + sidewalk=both/right/left?

If my interpreation is right, and what you’re actually proposing is just to deprecate highway=* + sidewalk=both/right/left, I question the reasoning behind the whole proposal. I quote from the wiki: 

"Currently, sidewalks are primarily tagged as properties of streets (highway=* + sidewalk=both/right/left) and less frequently as a property of footways (highway=footway + footway=sidewalk). As a result of these inconsistencies, sidewalks in OSM have spotty coverage. User contribution is not straightforward, and the mapping conventions fail to serve many use cases, including the needs of people with limited mobility.”

Really? By removing the quick and easy way to tag pavements, people will suddenly start mapping pavements?

-- 
Tor


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