[Talk-us] Safe Routes to School Mapping Toolkit concept

[Josh Doe]

On Sat, Aug 13, 2011 at 9:52 PM, Nathan Edgars II <neroute2 at gmail.com> wrote:
> This will require objective criteria for grading a route. Does SRTS ignore
> complications, such as badly-designed bike lanes and especially sidepaths
> decreasing safety, and kids choosing the sidewalk over even well-designed
> bike lanes? How is safety of crossing a street determined? How about safety
> of walking in the street?

Very good points to raise, but I don't think SRTS has any standard
definition of a "safe route". I'm still learning about the program,
but I believe the federal government distributes funds to states which
administer the distribution, so definitions would likely vary from
state to state. As a first cut I've decided to only route along
highway=footway/cycleway/path/steps/residential/service, and to
disallow routing along highway=service/residential if it crosses a
highway=secondary or above. Obviously there's more to it then this, so
I'd like others to provide their input. To be truly comprehensive we'd
need to include width of outside travel lane, width of shoulder, etc.,
but we'll get there when interest has been shown.

> One thing that might be useful in OSM would be marking crosswalks (or
> intersections?) where a crossing guard operates during school commuting
> hours.

It appears that there is the supervised=yes/no tag for that, though
there's only 1600 uses for that.

> As a suburban example for discussion, I volunteer the local elementary
> school:
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=28.41182&lon=-81.49269&zoom=17&layers=M
> Buena Vista Woods Boulevard has bike lanes, but kids generally ride on the
> sidewalk. There is a crossing guard at the west end of BVW, helping kids
> cross Apopka Vineland Road into the gated community. The path to the east
> (through the park) is open during school hours, and allows kids from the two
> subdivisions to the northeast to reach the school (I don't know if anyone
> from Sand Lake Point, the northern one of the two, does, but I often see
> kids and parents riding on the sidewalks of Sand Lake Cove and onto the
> path).

Thanks for your example. I've been experimenting with Terra Centre
Elementary School, as they're the test case for SRTS in Fairfax
County, Virginia:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=38.785521&lon=-77.297382&zoom=18&layers=M
Over the summer they're adding a sidewalk to improve access to the
school. Unfortunately, according to the distance maps I made this
weekend, it doesn't increase the number of households that are in
walking distance to the school! Perhaps with the new sidewalk they
should do some redistricting...

-Josh