[Talk-GB] Improving gate data

[Martin - CycleStreets]

We've been working on determining the location of modal filters across the 
UK[1]. You can currently see the data on this demo site, but a standalone 
site will be launched in a few weeks with the same data:

https://bikedata.cyclestreets.net/modalfilters/


We've been looking in particular at gate data, and around the UK there are 
a lot of gates which don't specify access details, or have other areas. 
Here is a map of all gates our analysis is picking out as potential modal 
filters, but within this we have spotted that some data errors are present:

https://bikedata.cyclestreets.net/modalfilters:type=gate/#7.54/52.93/0.006


Particular errors that are noticable, most of which are easily fixable, 
are:

- In town/city areas, gates which implement gated communities, i.e. private 
estates, are not always being marked as access=private, nor often is the 
road going through them. These are often spottable by a pair of gates near 
each other. Adding access=private to both is needed. These are particularly 
worth fixing and very easy to do.

- Gates for a residence or limiting access to a track coming off the road 
are sometimes being put on the main road itself rather than on the spur. 
That means it is very ambiguous as to whether they apply to the road 
itself. Again, these are easy to fix by shifting them to the side Way.

- Gates which genuinely restrict access often don't have access=... put on 
either the gate itself or the Way following. E.g. a gate which stops 
traffic but which people can legally walk/cycle round might have e.g. 
access=no/permissive, foot=yes, bicycle=yes. Fixing these would help 
routing and clear up a fair amount of mess on the map.

The wiki has the documentation for barrier=gate:
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:barrier%3Dgate


It would be great if mappers could look round their area and audit the 
gates shown. Those in rural areas in particular tend to be less 
well-mapped.


[1] https://www.cyclestreets.org/news/2021/07/25/mapping-ltns/


Martin,                     **  CycleStreets - For Cyclists, By Cyclists
Developer, CycleStreets     **  https://www.cyclestreets.org/