[Talk-GB] Imaginery footpaths added by user "Gavaasuren"

[SomeoneElse]

Hi,

User "Gavaasuren" has been adding a series of imaginary footpaths over 
the last few weeks, each with the changeset comment "zwischen 
Fußgängerzonen und Straßen Fußweg erstellt".  What they seem to be doing 
is joining "pedestrian islands" to random nearby roads in order to 
resolve "routing errors".

Whilst the existance of a highway=pedestrian area that isn't connected 
is an indication of something, it's usually just an indication of that 
mapping in a particular area is not complete.

For example, this way(1) was added to connect the pedestrian area to a 
random road, but in this instance the mapping of the marketplace as a 
pedestrian area is an approximation - what there actually are there lots 
of paths between market stalls, and I'm sure at some point in the future 
it'll get mapped properly.  Adding this imaginery footpath doesn't fix 
the problem - it's mapped just as "wrongly" now as it was before 
(arguably more so), but it does hide the problem from QA sites.

I've messaged this user 6 times over the last month and although they've 
replied communication does not seem to have occurred (they're still 
adding imaginery footpaths).  I also resurveyed a relatively local 
one(2) to show that, following a survey, what actually exists bears 
little resemblance to their "fixes".

I've just messaged them again saying "please stop!".  If they continue 
I'll mention it to the data working group; in the meantime I'd suggest 
that people check their local areas for these edits and (if they're 
invalid) revert them, and if possible survey and map the affected areas 
properly.

Cheers,

Andy



(1) http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/297892595/history
(2) http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/53.01357/-1.35353