[Talk-GB] Pavements (footways/sidewalks) mapped as pedestrian areas AND footways

[Robert Skedgell]

On 26/12/2022 13:48, David Woolley wrote:
> On 26/12/2022 13:32, Edward Catmur wrote:
>> Permissible, sure, but jumping a kerb may well be impracticable for 
>> people
>> who use wheelchairs or have other mobility issues. When done correctly,
>> mapping sidewalk and crossing detail is beneficial for accessibility.
> 
> Most residential roads don't have formal crossing points, except, 
> possibly, at their ends, where they form the vertical part of a T.  On 
> the other hand there are likely to be many dropped kerbs, but not 
> aligned with those on the other side.  Crossing points tend to be only 
> on the ending road, not on the one they are joining.
> 
> The problem with separate sidewalks, is that routers cannot tell whether 
> there is a significant barrier or not, so can potentially take very 
> roundabout routes if the correct solution is to arrive on a side road on 
> one side and cross over to the house opposite it.  That encourages 
> arbitrary crossing points to ensure more sensible routing.
> 
> Even for a wheelchair user, the solution may be to cross diagonally 
> between two driveways, rather than go to the end of the road, and back 
> again.
> 

Some newer residential developments have many formal crossing points, 
where mapping separate sidewalks and crossings is worthwhile, e.g. 
Chobham Manor in Stratford, London. Otherwise, I'm more interested in 
adding separate sidewalks to busy main roads with formal crossing points.

I've recently seen new housing developments in Pontefract which were 
surprisingly unfriendly to pedestrians. There were so few lowered kerbs 
(and no tactile paving at all) that I had to remind myself that they 
were built in the 2020s rather than the 1980s. Mapping separate 
sidewalks is unlikely to be useful in cases like this and the few 
dropped kerbs can be captured as additional tags on highway=crossing nodes.

I probably used to be a bit too enthusiastic at mapping separate 
sidewalks as ways where there are no or too few formal crossing points 
for them to have any real navigation or accessibility use. As I update 
parking in Newham to the latest tagging schema, I'm inclined to remove 
and replace some of them, e.g.
https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/130561118

-- 
Robert Skedgell (rskedgell)