Notes on tags used for sidewalks, footpaths, pedestrian facilities

[Katie Urey]

Hi All,

When Scott and Travis and I were looking over a recent OSM merged data set (from Michael Arnold by way of Scott), we started to talk about how pedestrian facilities (sidewalks, paths, footpaths, kerbs, curbs) are stored and tagged in OSM.  We also were surprised to find (if memory serves me right) some features with tags, key=pedestrian, value=highway.

The OSM community has developed tools to query for data, and to scan usage of tags.  I will mention 2 that may help us.

First, taginfo:  taginfo.openstreetmap.org
"OpenStreetMap uses tags of the form key=value to add meaning to geographic objects. Taginfo collects information about these tags from several sources to help you understand what they mean and how they are used.
"

Also the Overpass API
"The Overpass API (or OSM3S) is a read-only API that serves up custom selected parts of the OSM map data. It acts as a database over the web: the client sends a query to the API and gets back the data set that corresponds to the query. "

I used Overpass Turbo to look for places in Multnomah County by tag k=highway, v=pedestrian.  The link below shows the results and options to build new overpass queries.

http://overpass-turbo.eu/s/2FI

About OSM correctness and consistency-We were surprised to find some segments with key=pedestrian.  OSM notes on tags seem to suggest that sidewalks be labeled in other ways.  The link below shows the few places where there are ways with a k=pedestrian.

http://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/keys/pedestrian#map

Both taginfo and overpass are great ways to explore OSM data.


best regards,

--
Katie Urey
Portland, Oregon
503-228-3083 (land line with saxophone greeting)
503-780-9034 (cell, though not always "on")
ksu...@gmail.com