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I'm having trouble figuring out what to do with the thousands of unconnected sidewalks that have been manually mapped in my area. These are separate paths, not using the sidewalk='' tag on the adjacent road. The vast majority of these are disconnected to any other routable path. See for example the sidewalks surrounding the local church in the screenshot, or the neighborhood to the left of the church. Or along the top of the image, without marked crosswalks. How are these supposed to be connected to other paths if there is no marked crosswalk? Should they always be connected to the adjacent street whenever there is a curb cutout? As it stands they are essentially just useless clutter on the map, with no use for routing or for visibility.
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This is a specific problem with sidewalks mapped separately: they require much more interconnectivity than if the sidewalks are mapped by tags on the main highways. The main reason for mapping sidewalks separately is for routing for wheelchair users and others of limited mobility. These applications also require additional information about surfaces, kerbs and other types of obstructions. Broadly, I would do as you suggest and map crosswalks as ways at each kerb cut-out (footway=crossing): these can me mapped using unmarked crossings. In many places these days there may be lowered kerbs at these locations anyway. The sidewalks should equally be connected to driveways and other service roads which they cross (e.g., West 10 S). Footways around the church need to connected to the adjacent roads. Lastly, ensure that the actual motorable highways are tagged with sidewalk=separate: this provides the potential for applications to choose whether to use the separately mapped sidewalks or not. |
