[Talk-GB] Separate sidewalks added by #waymap-project-SB in West London

[Robert Skedgell]

We have had a large number of separate sidewalks added around Shepherds 
Bush, mostly by user alisonlung (possibly based in the USA) with some 
contributions by ABullock with the hashtag #waymap-project-SB

I have several problems with this:
- there seems to be no documentation or explanation of this organised 
editing project (or I'm looking in the wrong place)
- alisonlung has consistently ignored changeset comments from other users
- the sidewalks were frequently decorative: they may look pretty on OSM 
Carto, but often provide no or negative benefit for pedestrian routing
- some sidewalks were added with layer=-1, strongly suggesting that the 
mapper(s) had no idea what the tag means
- some cycleways around Shepherds Bush Green were changed to footways 
without adding bicycle=yes, which I consider to be vandalism

I have tried to fix some of these, but the volume and the amount of 
fiddly realignment required seems disproportionate.

I propose to do the following:
- retain and repair sidewalks on main roads 
(trunk/primary/secondary/tertiary) where there are defined crossing 
points, or where there is a clear benefit to pedestrian routing
- delete most sidewalks added by these users on residential streets, 
leaving crossings as nodes on the highway

-- 
Robert Skedgell (rskedgell)