[Tagging] Mapping curb (kerb) lines as the home of curb, parking, etc information

[Warin]

On 04/03/19 06:12, Nick Bolten wrote:
> A recent post on the Mapillary blog 
> (https://blog.mapillary.com/update/2019/02/12/potential-for-openstreetmap-to-seize-the-curb.html) 
> reminded me of my long-running wish to have more curb lines mapped, so 
> I wanted to get a discussion started to see what people think of 
> mapping curbs as ways.
>
> The short version is this: if we put kerb=* on a line and call it its 
> own feature, what's the best tagging schema to use and what kind of 
> additional information is appropriate? Personally, I'd like to use 
> (and recommend) the existing kerb=* tags around blocks and potentially 
> add parking information.
>
> Potential mapping and data use cases:
>
> - Public parking data: curbs are already marked with parking / 
> stopping information, and when motor vehicles stop at a curb they are 
> meant to follow the local regulations regarding access. Curbs seem 
> like a natural place to store this information: you can split the way 
> whenever the parking situation differs or where there are dedicated 
> parking slots. It is attractive to associate streets with parking 
> information, but if one were to split street ways whenever parking 
> information changed, every city block would become an 
> incomprehensible, split-up mess.
>
> - Streets as areas: there are a few schemas out there about mapping 
> streets and related features as areas, primarily for rendering 
> purposes. Mapping the curb is fully compatible with, and part of, 
> these proposals, and could provide a means of building up to fully 
> mapping contiguous areas.
>
> - Pedestrian crossings. I would be very excited to map out kerb=* ways 
> around every block I see, because it makes QA (and even safe, 
> semi-automated edits) for pedestrian accessibility so easy. All a 
> validator has to do is check that a highway=footway crosses a kerb=* 
> way and lacks its own kerb=* node. This is similar to the validators 
> already used in JOSM and iD that check for things like a footway or 
> street intersecting a building, reminding users to use covered=* or 
> tunnel=*.
>
> - Pedestrian islands. These are often just an assembly of raised curbs 
> intended to protect pedestrians that are doing a multi-part crossing 
> of a street or streets.
>
> - Opportunity to merge with + simplify micromapped stairs: what are 
> stairs but a series of carefully-raised "curbs"? I've seen various 
> proposals regarding how one might map large, beautiful, public 
> stairways. This is a whole can of worms, but the information in 
> describing a physical curb is essentially the same as describing any 
> 'stuff on the right is higher than stuff on the left' interface.
>
> Thoughts?

Err ... no.
Curbs and guttering are road edges. Detail them as part of the road/foot 
path.