Draft:Foundation/Local Chapters/United States/Pedestrian Working Group/Guide
![]() | This schema document is still under active construction - consider other Wiki pages to be more authoritative in cases of conflicting information! |
This is a work-in-progress draft of a quick-start guide for pedestrian infrastructure mapping developed by the Pedestrian Working Group.
A work-in-progress draft of a full tagging schema for pedestrian infrastructure mapping is available here.
Anatomy of a Sidewalk
Our end-goal is mapping for a sidewalk network for navigation.
Tiers
A tier-based system is used to communicate which features and tags are possible with various resources and necessary for which use cases, as follows, with further details below:
Icon | Name | Description | Use Cases | Required Resources |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bronze | Basic geometry and essential tags | Basic everyday pedestrian navigation | (Older) Low-quality aerial imagery | |
Silver | Detailed geometry and tagging | Accessibility-focused applications | (Somewhat recent) Medium-quality aerial imagery and/or low-quality street-level imagery | |
Gold | Micromapping and advanced tagging | Advanced routers and visualizations | (Recent) High-quality aerial and/or street-level imagery or in-person survey |
If, for example, you want to map pedestrian infrastructure so that it can be used for basic everyday routing and only have low-quality aerial imagery available, you would include only the features and tags marked with a Bronze Tier symbol.
If you have access to high-quality imagery and want to map pedestrian infrastructure so that it can be used by accessibility-focused routers, you would include all features and tags marked with a Bronze Tier symbol or a
Silver Tier symbol.
Mapping Guidelines
Sidewalks
Crossings
Connectors (exact tagging schema pending)
highway=? + ?=? - Connecting sidewalk centerlines and curb nodes, bridging representational mapping of centerlines and literal mapping of curb locations.
Curbs
Elements
Included below are the Bronze Tier and
Silver Tier tags, which represent a good level of detail to aim for while balancing the amount of work required to map pedestrian infrastructure in detail.
For a full listing of tags and their tier classifications, refer to the full schema here.
Sidewalks
Crossings
crossing:markings=* - Specify presence and type of markings
crossing:markings=no - No markings
crossing:markings=yes - Markings present, type unspecified
crossing:markings=zebra - Zebra markings
crossing:markings=lines - Lines markings
crossing:markings=* - Any other applicable value
crossing:signals=* - Specify presence and type of signalization
crossing:signals=no - No signals
crossing:signals=yes - Signals present, type unspecified
crossing:signals=shared - Vehicle traffic lights only
crossing:signals=dedicated - Dedicated pedestrian traffic signals
crossing:island=* - Presence of pedestrian island
surface=* - Crossing surface material
highway=crossing - Indicate crossing location
tactile_paving=* - Specify tactile paving presence along crossing way
tactile_paving=yes - Tactile paving is present along the entire way
tactile_paving=no - Tactile paving is not present along the entire way
highway=footway + footway=crossing - Indicate crossing location
tactile_paving=* - Specify tactile paving presence at curb nodes
tactile_paving=yes - Tactile paving is present at both curbs
tactile_paving=partial - Tactile paving is present at only one curb
tactile_paving=no - Tactile paving is not present at either curb
Curbs
tactile_paving=* - Specify tactile paving presence
tactile_paving=yes - Tactile paving is present
tactile_paving=no - Tactile paving is not present
Islands
highway=footway + footway=traffic_island - Indicate traffic island location
Access Aisles
highway=footway + footway=access_aisle - Indicate access aisle location
access_aisle:markings=* - Specify presence and type of markings
access_aisle:markings=no - No markings
access_aisle:markings=yes - Markings present, type unspecified
access_aisle:markings=zebra - Zebra markings
access_aisle:markings=ladder:skewed - Skewed ladder markings
access_aisle:markings=* - Any other applicable value
surface=* - Access aisle surface material
Roadways
highway=* - Indicate roadway location
sidewalk:side=* (sidewalk:left=* | sidewalk:right=* | sidewalk:both=*)