[Talk-GB] Hanway Street - London - highway=residential or highway=service

[Stephen Colebourne]

On Fri, 12 Feb 2021 at 10:06, Edward Catmur via Talk-GB <
talk-gb at openstreetmap.org> wrote:
> They're all over the south east; I think they were popular during the
suburban boom of the 1930s. Typically (at least in south London) they're
rather less well manicured than your example (which has an engineered
surface, a defined verge, and even street lighting). An example that I
would definitely describe as an alley (and has been tagged highway=service
service=alley) is  https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/61299961 (visual:
https://www.bing.com/maps?cp=51.37357~-0.243965&lvl=17&dir=358.246&style=x&v=2&sV=1)
- just wide enough for 1 car, with a solid but unsealed surface, giving
access to back gardens. In some other parts of London they've been mapped
as highway=track e.g.  https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/525334642 which I
don't feel is quite correct.

I've changed those on surveys from track to service in SW London. But
service=alley is more problematic.

My issue is from a security/safety perspective. I would refer to them as
"rear access", and as such they provide an ideal way for thieves to access
the back of a property without being overlooked. They are almost always
private. But the typical rendering for highway=service, service=alley
access=private is pretty heavy, and at certain zoom levels it can be hard
to see the real streets from the unimportant rear access ones.
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/51.37210/-0.24415&layers=N

I'd prefer to see a new service type of service=rear_access for these cases
(service roads for accessing the rear of a property in residential areas,
generally unpaved, where you really shouldn't go as a member of the
public). I do think they are a different category to more open paved alleys
I've seen in some parts of the country.

Stephen
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