Draft:Foundation/Local Chapters/United States/Pedestrian Working Group/Schema

This is a work-in-progress draft of a full tagging schema for pedestrian infrastructure mapping developed by the Pedestrian Working Group. Questions? Email pedestrian@openstreetmap.us!

A work-in-progress draft of a quick-start guide for pedestrian infrastructure mapping is available here.

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.

Bronze

Description: Basic geometry and essential tags are present to form an independent navigable pedestrian network consisting of sidewalks and crossings.

Implementation:

• Sidewalks and crossings are mapped as separate ways.
• Essential information about crossings is tagged, such as whether or not markings and signals are present.
• Sidewalk presence tags on roadways are updated to use sidewalk:side=no/separate.
  • no is particularly important because it helps mappers and data consumers understand where it has been confirmed that sidewalks are not present.
  • Any existing properties of the sidewalks which were previously mapped on the roadway, such as sidewalk:left:surface=concrete, should be moved from the roadway to the sidewalks.

Silver

Description: Detailed geometry and tagging is present to enable accessibility-focused applications and basic visualizations.

Implementation:

• Sidewalk geometry at intersections is well-represented with ways added where necessary between curbs and sidewalk centerlines
• Detailed information about features is tagged, such as curb types and surface materials.

Gold

Description: Micromapping and highly detailed tagging is present, which enables router customization for various types of mobility-impaired users and for detailed representation of the environment for institutional use.

Implementation:

• area:highway=footway - area representations of pedestrian features are mapped.
  • Note: Requires fallback representation of paths of travel as ways at centerlines!
• Highly detailed tags may be present to enable use cases outside of routing for everyday users, such as informing policy-making decisions
• Small features, such as call buttons and pedestrian signal lights may be mapped separately.

Diamond

Description: Tags and mapping methods that are on the line or just outside of the PWG Schema's scope but still recognized. These tags may require specialized tools or expertise to survey or calculate, or are only regionally specific, extremely uncommon, or still in a proposed state and without widespread usage.

Implementation:

Tagging Guidelines

Sidewalks

Tag	Element	Bronze	Silver	Gold	Diamond
highway=footway + footway=sidewalk		Indicates a sidewalk location.
surface=*			Required in the silver tier, example values include: concrete asphalt
tactile_paving=*			Is tactile paving present?: yes - Tactile paving is present along the entire way no - Tactile paving is not present along the entire way
lit=*				Indicate whether the way is lit, examples include: yes, or no, or any other valid value
width=*				Specify the width of the sidewalk
incline=*				Incline along the way (for hilly areas), specified as: up or down	Incline along the way (for hilly areas), specified as a value, example: 15%
incline:across=*					Incline across the way
tactile_paving:colour=*					Specify the tactile paving color.

Crossings

Tag	Element	Bronze	Silver	Gold	Diamond
highway=footway + footway=crossing		Indicates a crossing mapped as a way.
highway=crossing		Indicates a crossing mapped as a node. ⛔️ NOTE: The footway=* tag is not used on crossings mapped as nodes.
crossing:markings=*		Are markings present?: yes, or no	In the silver tier, this tag becomes more specific, ex: zebra, or lines, or any other valid value
crossing:signals=*		Are signals present?: yes, or no			In the diamond tier, this tag becomes more specific, ex: shared, or dedicated
tactile_paving=*			Is tactile paving present along the entire way?: yes - Tactile paving is present along the entire way no - Tactile paving is not present along the entire way
tactile_paving=*			Is tactile paving present at the curb nodes?: yes - Tactile paving is present at both curbs no - Tactile paving is NOT present at either curb partial - Tactile paving is present at only one curb
surface=*			Required in the silver tier, example values include: concrete asphalt
crossing:island=*			Indicate presence: yes or no
button_operated=*				Indicate button operation: yes or no
traffic_signals:arrow=*				Indicate presence: yes or no
traffic_signals:vibration=*				Indicate presence: yes or no
traffic_signals:minimap=*				Indicate presence: yes or no
traffic_signals:sound=*				Are acoustic signals present? yes - when there are signals helping to cross. no - when there are no acoustic signals.	When there are partial sound signals: locate - Acoustic signals are present for finding the button only walk - Acoustic signals are present for walk permission only
width=*				Required in the gold tier.
tactile_paving:colour=*					Specify the tactile paving color.

Curbs

Tag	Element	Bronze	Silver	Gold	Diamond
barrier=kerb			Indicates a curb location.
kerb=*			Specify the curb type: raised - Raised curb lowered - Curb ramp flush - Flush curb rolled - Rolled curb no - There is no curb
tactile_paving=*			Indicate tactile paving presence: yes or no
kerb:height=*				Specify the (raised) curb height
tactile_paving:colour=*					Specify the tactile paving color.

Islands

Tag	Element	Bronze	Silver	Gold	Diamond
highway=footway + footway=traffic_island			Indicate a traffic island mapped as a way
surface=*			Required in the silver tier, example values include: concrete asphalt
tactile_paving=*			Is tactile paving present?: yes - Tactile paving is present along the entire way no - Tactile paving is not present along the entire way
lit=*				Indicate whether the way is lit, examples include: yes, or no, or any other valid value
width=*				Specify the width of the traffic island
incline=*				Incline along the way (for hilly areas), specified as: up or down	Incline along the way (for hilly areas), specified as a value, example: 15%
incline:across=*					Incline across the way
tactile_paving:colour=*					Specify the tactile paving color.

Access Aisles

Tag	Element	Bronze	Silver	Gold	Diamond
highway=footway + footway=access_aisle			Indicate an access aisle location
access_aisle:markings=*			Specify the presence and type of markings: no - No markings yes - Markings present, type unspecified zebra - Zebra markings ladder:skewed - Skewed ladder markings Any other applicable value
surface=*			Required in the silver tier, example values include: concrete asphalt
tactile_paving=*			Is tactile paving present?: yes - Tactile paving is present along the entire way no - Tactile paving is not present along the entire way
lit=*				Indicate whether the way is lit, examples include: yes, or no, or any other valid value
width=*				Specify the width of the access aisle
incline=*				Incline along the way (for hilly areas), specified as: up or down	Incline along the way (for hilly areas), specified as a value, example: 15%
incline:across=*					Incline across the way
tactile_paving:colour=*					Specify the tactile paving color.

Roadways

Tag	Element	Bronze	Silver	Gold	Diamond
highway=*		Indicate a roadway location
sidewalk:(left|right|both)=*		The standard of the US Pedestrian Working Group (US PWG) deprecates the use of yes to indicate that a street has an associated sidewalk, please use the following instead: no - No associated sidewalk present separate - Associated sidewalk is present and mapped as separate geometry
maxspeed=*				Indicate the highway speed limit