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

[Robert Skedgell]

I am not against mapping separate sidewalks and have added quite a few 
of them on main roads where they're generally helpful for routing and 
accessibility. I've also added them in some newer residential 
developments which have been designed to be pedestrian-friendly, with 
lots of tactile paving, kerb adaptations etc.

My general test for whether it is worth mapping a separate sidewalk is: 
if I were planning a run, would this help?

With sidewalks on residential streets added by a local mapper, I'll 
survey and add crossings and wouldn't consider deleting them without 
discussion.

These, on the other hand, have been added as part of a nebulous project, 
mostly by a mapper who has not responded to changeset comments by other 
users, and who may be mapping from an armchair in the USA.

I walked down Shepherds Bush Road yesterday afternoon and used 
StreetComplete to update sidewalks and crossings. I feel that was worth 
the effort for routing and accessibility (and there was a pint at the 
end). I don't propose to walk around the surrounding residential streets 
to add crossings.

On 17/01/2023 10:02, Steven Hirschorn wrote:
> I raised this once before on this list and didn't feel the response was 
> very positive so left all the sidewalk mapping - in my case it came onto 
> my radar in Acton.
> It seems pointless mapping pavements on little residential streets 
> because the default expectation is a pavement on either side.
> Like you say, it can negatively impact routing if the sidewalks aren't 
> joined to the roads at regular intervals, so it's easy to get wrong.
> There's a justification for mapping sidewalks in some circumstances. The 
> thread is here:
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-gb/2021-October/027947.html <https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-gb/2021-October/027947.html>
> 
> On Tue, 17 Jan 2023, 08:56 Robert Skedgell, <rob at hubris.org.uk 
> <mailto:rob at hubris.org.uk>> wrote:
> 
>     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
>