Stuff I hate about sidewalk mapping

I have a certain… love-hate relationship with separte sidewalk mapping. On one hand, they do allow for a more complex mapping like specifying the type of separation between sidewalks and carriageway, easier to specify the surface of sidewalks (especially if the corresponding carriageway is split up), etc. On the other hand, they make routing (potentially) more complex (it’s complicated, actually) which is why I generally see them more useful on busy roads and outside settlements where you don’t expect spontaneous crossings. One thing what really fuels my issues with them, though, is just how careless a lot of users are with them, that one should go and map them however one wants despite the potential problems which can arise.

This is ultimately what I really hate about them: That (typically inexperienced) users go and start mapping sidewalks however they want (that is, draw them as they exist on a map). It’s such a big issue because it actually breaks routing, particularly if you map around blocks which usually only have limited official crossings and in turn a lot of virtual paths have to be created. Some pretty bad ones are such sloppy that they ignore all the warnings in their editor (be it two unconnected but crossing ways, way-building intersections or isolated ways).

All in all, here are my personal faux pas you can make with them (aside from ignoring all the warnings in your editor of choice):

Not detaching ways from the carriageway

This is a classic “just draw sidewalk” phenomenon: Draw the sidewalk but keep the connections from the now carriageway.

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