[Talk-GB] Correcting an unsafe cycle route onto Homerton High St

[Jon Pennycook]

Personally, I wouldn't often add paths to link pavements with roads unless
there's a dropped kerb. I assume the person who originally added it thought
that it would be useful to get between the cycleway and Isabella Road, but
if it's not a route that people would take, it's probably best to remove it
as it's a "virtual path" to provide connectivity rather than a real path.
However, what would an eastbound pedestrian travelling from Homerton Row or
The City Academy do at this point?  They would presumably use the pavement
on the north side to travel east, in which case they wouldn't in reality
travel to the zebra crossing to the west, so then you'll need to add the
pavement that links the cycleway with a crossing of Furrow Lane to the east
if you remove the virtual path.

Is there a dropped kerb here (Google suggests not)? If the path is retained
in OSM and there's a raised kerb, at least add a barrier=kerb node to the
path between where it connects to the cycleway and to the road. I think
CycleStreets takes note of kerbs, hopefully other routers do too.  I would
also remove "bicycle=dismount" because this might override some default
value that the router is inferring (although for highway=footway, that's
likely to be bicycle=dismount anyway).  I feel that bicycle=dismount on an
ordinary footway is like adding motor_vehicle=no to a footway.  Again from
Google, it looks like part of Isabella Road is made of paving stones or
setts.  If so, splitting the road and adding the surface details to the
part near the junction would be useful - CycleStreets imposes a penalty for
surfaces that aren't smooth.

As for "allowed" - it looks like a public highway and it's not a motorway.
Unless there are restrictions imposed by the highway authority (e.g. like a
road linking the A4 with the M4 -
https://www.mapillary.com/map/im/pfR3hBVeLaAjkkky2CTHiQ), pedestrians can
do what they like - they're automatically allowed to enter and use public
highways.

Jon


On Fri, 15 Jan 2021, 17:37 Mat Attlee, <mattattlee at gmail.com> wrote:

> I've noticed that CycleStreets often suggests cycling onto and across
> Homerton High St, which is a quite busy road. For example
> https://www.cyclestreets.net/journey/72667503/
>
> I found the culprit which is this way
> https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/38083628 however having surveyed this
> area countless times, I feel that this way is neither correct or safe as
> pedestrians or cyclists should not enter or cross the road here as there
> are no signs indicating it is allowed and there is a pedestrian crossing
> just nearby.
>
> Should I delete this way or is there a reason for its existence?
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