I’ve gotten most, if not all of the sidewalks mapped out within Avalon Borough. As I’ve worked eastward from Ben Avon, I’ve encountered a few other sidewalks mapped separately, many of which do not specifically note pedestrian crossings, so I plan to comb over those to see what I can make more consistent. There is a section of ORB/PA-65 where there are many crossings that are not tagged correctly. As this section is chock-full of turning vehicles, this seems rather dangerous, so I’m going to go through that area to map and tag things with pedestrian safety and accessibility in mind.

I have proceeded across the border into Bellevue, as well, with many of the above concerns in mind while tracing aerial photography.

I’ve been kind of bouncing around various projects the past week.

I have tentatively completed sidewalk mapping in Emsworth Borough, and have moved on to adding sidewalks and pedestrian crossings in Avalon. I also did a little revamp of the playground adjacent to the Avalon Elementary School. It turns out that as I was extending the sidewalk along California Avenue, I met up with some previously mapped sidewalk bits, which is nice. Although they have not added a lot of the tags I do, so I will circle back to make this area a little more seamless with what I’ve added to the west.

I’m planning to go through Ben Avon and Emsworth to tag pedestrian crossings and curbs a little more consistently; I had been changing the way I tag things as I went based on new information/methodology.

I got kind of distracted when I realized that Pittsburgh Botanical Garden needed some updating due to their recent renovations. I was able to add the new visitor center and update a lot of the concrete paths, but I have some question marks as to the accuracy of some of the other paths on the property. I will take some good GPX tracks the next time I am there (likely this week). I especially want to see what progress has been made on the feature that is to the southwest of the Lotus Pond. I will also try to acquire a more precise/accurate/official property map from PBG, because the pictoral one on their website is great for ordinary wayfinding, but wholly inadequate in precisely showing where things are.

Added sidewalks south of Center Avenue between Hazelwood and Hiland, north of ORB/PA-65. Connected sidewalk to previous additions from Ben Avon.

I plan to extend coverage north of Center Avenue within Emsworth, and south of ORB/PA-65.

Added some parking lots here and there where most obvious, and cleaned up the area around Camp Horne Road & ORB intersection. This area could likely use some more work.

Realigned buildings here and there based on updated aerial photography. Might make another pass because there are quite a few that seem to be several meters out of alignment. I’ll have to check the original data these were derived from, but at least so far it seems that the PEMA imagery is the most accurate and precise available. I’ve cross-checked several notable points against the Allegheny County GIS viewer to confirm alignment to the best of my ability for now.

Started working on extending sidewalk mapping coverage into Emsworth Borough. I’m working much the same way as I did for Ben Avon, mapping sidewalks using a combination of aerial imagery, street-level photographs (Bing, PEMA, Esri, as well as my own), and in-person survey.

I was somewhat surprised to see that a footpath I have used numerous times going back many years was unmapped, so I added it (marked on the associated map).

I am trying how best to approach the area of Memorial Field (adjacent to Ohio River Boulevard / PA-65). The area currently marked shows as a football field, but the actual usage of the field is also a baseball diamond seasonally. In addition the area is shaped and sized differently than currently shown. Also, there are footpaths around it that are somewhat challenging to see on aerial imagery, so I suspect I will have to do some in-person GPS tracking to get better data. I am debating whether or not to map the pedestrian tunnel that passes beneath ORB/PA-65, as in the past I have been admonished that it is illegal to use. But it’s not physically blocked, nor are there posted signs indicating the access status. I just don’t want someone to wander through it and get into trouble, so maybe I’ll map it and tag it private or something to discourage public use until I can confirm.

I will probably bounce around between sidewalks and other features as I come across them.

I’ve begun to add sidewalks in Swissvale Borough.

This is my current methodology (just putting this somewhere so I can reference it later, and adapt to new information/methodology when necessary):

1. add longest section of sidewalk possible (using clearest aerial imagery available, when in doubt, crosscheck with others; using PEMA, Esri, Bing for the most part), tag surface and smoothness where appropriate.
2. add pedestrian crossing across intersecting ways, tag surface and markings.
3. add crossing for intersecting ways (when prompted), tag surface and markings.
4. tag all corners appropriately (curb height, wheelchair access).
5. verify the above using street-level imagery and in-person surveys when possible.
6. change tag for adjacent streets to sidewalk=separate to indicate that the sidewalk is mapped separately.

I’ve lately been doing some small fixes here and there, just trying to tie up some loose ends. This has included some in-person surveys of a few areas, which has raised as many (or more!) questions than it has answered. I still have a long list of other surveys I wish to conduct as my schedule allows. With the weather (generally) getting warmer every week, I feel like these will get more frequent.

I’ve added a few stop signs, but have paused doing that because I’m not entirely sure I was doing it correctly or the preferred way.

I’ve added some bus stops, but have paused doing that in a comprehensive way because I want to figure out how to assign them properly to routes / relations. That’s a whole new dimension of OSM that I don’t have a good grasp of yet, and need to do further research.

I think I’m going to branch out to other areas to work on sidewalks, because adding them is really satisfying. I’ve already gotten feedback from an IRL friend who uses one of the OSM-based apps that they appreciate seeing ‘new’ sidewalks popping up.

I have tentatively completed the sidewalks in Ben Avon, as well as pedestrian crossings, and some fire hydrants. I have added surface materials to most, if not all of the sidewalks and ped crossings. Some of the pedestrian crossings may have had their lines repainted more recently than the available street-level imagery I have access to, so I will update them as necessary.

For now, I’ve held off tagging sidewalks and pedestrian crossings with smoothness and slope data, partly because of the difficulty of adding that manually, but also because I’m not quite sure how useful this data is given that few renderers seem to use this data. Even Wheelmap.org seems to only pull the data on individual buildings/businesses, rather than the condition of the pathways that lead between them. So unless I come across a compelling reason to go back and add this data, this aspect is on pause for me.

One of my next goals was to be adding private driveways and walkways to connect with sidewalks and streets, but I am second-guessing this now. While many are easily visible from a combination of aerial and street-level photography, there are also quite a few that are difficult to see under heavy tree cover.

I am going to investigate how to properly map stop signs and other traffic control devices, and perhaps add speed limits to roadways as I am able.

I also ran into some trouble when adding a bridge area and modifying another bridge area, along with the associated ways that pass over and under it… so I probably need to brush up on how best to modify those for future use.

There are also a couple of areas that probably should be modified to be more in line with existing conditions. For example, there are a few blocks east of Dickson Avenue, between Perrysville and Church that are not included in the adjacent Residential Area when they really should be.

… See full entry

I got kind of sidetracked the past couple of days on two separate updates, one of which is in-progress (albeit a low priority for me), and the other I haven’t even started to unravel.

1. I studied the wiki to find the proper tagging method to indicate that the lower portion of Forest Avenue (btwn Brighton and Western, underneath PA-65) is off-limits to large trucks. While out walking around, I noticed a very new, very visible sign that forbids semis, so it’s quite possible that they’ve recently had issues with large trucks exiting PA-65 to attempt deliveries at the industrial area near the Emsworth Locks and Dam, or re-entering 65 farther down the road. While it seems that several other roads in Ben Avon are clearly marked as “no trucks, local deliveries only” (and I have tagged those roads as best as I could for now), this particular tunnel seems to be particularly off-limits. I plan to survey some other entry points into Ben Avon to verify signage and weight limits, and will update as I get better on-the-ground information.

2. I’ve noticed a whole tangled web of issues in the area of Spruce Run near the old Building Mill. Hiking trails cross streams, streams cross roads, streams cross buildings… it is difficult to make complete sense of things. For now I haven’t attempted any clean up in this area, but will do so after I survey the area in person. I am hoping to complete this without too much trespassing, and before the leaves obstruct line-of-sight from publicly-accessible vantage points.

Additionally, until now I have concerned myself with issues that arise from my own edits, but moving forward I will attempt to resolve other lingering issues that appear on the map in the Ben Avon vicinity while I am out-and-about.

I have completed adding a large portion of sidewalks and pedestrian crossings in Ben Avon. I still have the eastern portion to complete, as well as a few loose ends, especially where they integrate with others’ edits and special cases. I need to also do some specific surveying to compare to street-level photos and aerial imagery for some of these loose ends.

I have also added fire hydrants and mailboxes as I saw them on street-level imagery and walkabout surveying, but not quite in a comprehensive way.

I have had to move and tweak some building shapes during this process, and it makes me want to tackle that in a more systematic way… but there are likely other more pressing needs.

I think after I have finished adding sidwalks, I may go back and start adding driveways and walkways to help door-to-door routing.

Some of my goals for mapping Ben Avon

(Emsworth, Avalon, Kilbuck Twp, and surrounding areas as I progress):

1. Add sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, and other footpaths where they exist.

2. Add as much rich data to these as possible to increase accessibility for all modes of travel.

3. How to add slope data efficiently?

4. How to add surface conditions, especially micro-scale (<1m) features such as broken concrete, uneven transitions between concrete slabs, debris, etc.?

5. Add driveways and footpaths between sidewalks and building entrances.

6. Refine building outlines, position, and tags.