I have recently started mapping my local area and the way that pedestrian and cycleways are mapped varies depending on where I am looking. Most pavements are mapped as tagged onto the roads, whereas physically seperate cycle tracks are displayed seperately (Which from my understanding is correct).
But in some sections the pavement is marked seperately when it should be tagged onto the road based off of the other sections of the area. So what is the normal method for tagging/marking cycletracks, cycleways and pavements, and how do you correctly connect seperated pavements back onto tagged roads?
Thanks,
Sparrow
This section was the main one that caught my attention, the cycletrack on the right is separated by a curb and therefore is mapped separately, however on the left there is a separately mapped pavement up to Portia Way before stopping. Along both areas the pavement is being tagged into the road, and the seperation does not change between before and after Portia Way, both are pavement/curb/road sections.
The only issue here is that separate pavements have been added, but the tags on the road have not been updated. Any examples of sidewalk:both=yes or sidewalk:left=yes or sidewalk:right=yes should be updated to sidewalk:X=separate where separate geometry has been created. You can also remove sidewalk:X:surface as this should be tagged on the pavement way. Combined cycle and foot paths also count as sidewalks in regards to tagging the sidewalks on the road.
Okay, I’ll update the tags now and make sure that it all matches what should be in place. Would it be worth me continuing the start of this and make a full pavement/cycle track network where possible?
I reverted previous changes that I had made as I was unsure, I’ll set those correctly now sorry.
Some will say separate pavement mapping is needed and some will say it’s not in the UK, there is no real consensus. If you have a few hours you can read through previous threads on the matter.
Only if you’re committed to doing it properly and consistently within a given area, for example along all primary and trunk roads in a given town or suburb. Pavements and crossings can be quite time consuming to map right, with barrier=kerb nodes in all the right places and so on. A lot of the controversy about pavements is due to them being mapped badly, which takes a long time to clean up and can disrupt routing in the meantime. If you look at Whitnash, a lot of pavements have been mapped separately there, so it would make sense to fill in any gaps that exist for consistency. But generally, residential roads are the lowest priority for adding separate pavements.
I would tend to agree with the idea that separate pavements do not need mapping and the tag sidewalk:both=yes or sidewalk:left=yes or sidewalk:right=yes is enough. Cycleways are a similar thing if a little more complicated, as they can be no-road or on-pavement cycleways and have tagging to indicate this. However I do believe that both tagging with the road and separate is wrong. One or the other
Using this location as an example, when viewing in CyclOSM it is clear to see the duplication of cycleways/footpaths
