[Talk-us] NC sidewalk data import

[jumbanho at gmail.com]

I can only speak for the Triangle area, but many sidewalks are mapped
as separate ways in this area.  It is probably due to the very
idiosyncratic spending on sidewalks that can begin and end in the
middle of blocks and frequently do not have connections to the road at
one end or the other.  Trying to split ways and add information on
connections would lead to very fragmented way.

Melanie, I know that there was a partial sidewalk import in
Carrboro/Chapel Hill years ago and there is currently a mapping project
to add sidewalks in the city of Durham which is about halfway complete
(see https://tasks.openstreetmap.us/project/92).  I cannot speak of
other cities' data, but the City of Durham data has only the sidewalk
ways themselves and have no connections to streets or other
infrastructure such as greenways or railways, so a mass import without
careful integration with existing data would not work.  It is a fairly
labor intensive process.  It would be definitely worth your while to
work on that as you move forward with a broader import project.

I think the most currently active NC community is on Slack and you
might get more detailed conversations there.  Here is the nc slack
link: https://osmus.slack.com/messages/CAM9RBREE and here is the
triangle link: https://osmus.slack.com/messages/CDW5X3RRD

James

On Mon, 2019-01-28 at 21:02 +0900, Joseph Eisenberg wrote:
> The sidewalk style is somewhat controversial. For routing
> applications, it is simpler if the sidewalk is added as a tag on the
> highway. This also makes it easier to render clean-looking maps.
> However, some people prefer to have the sidewalks separately mapped,
> so that they can be seen at high zoom levels in rendered maps.
> 
> I would suggest checking the current method used in North Carolina,
> especially in the cities or towns where you plan to add missing
> sidewalks. It’s probably best to continue using the method that local
> mappers have chosen. This may vary between different towns.
> 
> Thank you for helping make Openstreetmap even better!
> On Mon, Jan 28, 2019 at 7:48 PM Rihards <richlv at nakts.net> wrote:
> > On 27.01.19 21:41, Melanie Mazanec wrote:
> > > Hello,
> > > 
> > > I'm a front end dev for a city government working on a side
> > project to
> > > fork and add to AccessMap <https://www.accessmap.io/> for North
> > Carolina
> > > cities.
> > > 
> > > In order to make this happen, I want to import North Carolina
> > city
> > > sidewalk data into OSM.  I have no prior OSM experience, so I'm
> > > following the suggested wiki protocol and reaching out here
> > before
> > > attempting an import.
> > > 
> > > Does anyone have advice about tutorials or where to start?  Are
> > there
> > > any NC OSM communities or enthusiasts I can connect with?  Also,
> > it
> > > seems like there are two competing sidewalk data formats.  Is
> > there a
> > > preferred standard now?
> > 
> > Hi, that's really great news - welcome to OSM.
> > It would be useful if you would try some basic mapping first to get
> > familiar with OSM data structure. Try to map something near your
> > workplace or home.
> > That doesn't stop you from working on the import, of course. Any
> > questions on OSM are welcome on the IRC channel #osm (
> > https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/IRC ), or any other OSM
> > communication channel.
> > 
> > > Thanks,
> > > Melanie Mazanec-- 
> >  Rihards
> > 
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