Evolving demands for pedestrian data are the highest ever, with OpenStreetMap being a natural space where organizations and individuals can collaborate to create the most detailed maps covering the broadest range of requirements. OpenStreetMap US launched the Pedestrian Working Group to coordinate efforts for mapping pedestrian features. Welcome!

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**Our last meeting of 2024 is: December 17 @ 3:00pm EST**

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# Meeting: November 19, 2024 3pm EST
### Attendees (please sign in) - name, any affiliation
1. Chad Blevins, Meta + YouthMappers
2. Alyssa Castronuovo, OSM US
3. Amy Bordenave, Seattle, WA
4. Jacob Hall, MapRVA
5. Clifford Snow, Mount Vernon, WA
6. Tom Mueller, MassGIS
7. Dan Patterson ([GeoInformatics Studio](https://geoinformatics.studio/))
8. Sam Yasen (Taskar Center, UW, Seattle)
9. Jay Davis, USDOT / BTS (NC-BPAID)
10. Anat Caspi (Taskar Center, UW, Seattle)
11. Justyna Goworowska, USDOT-BTS
12. Lou Huang (Streetmix)
13. Guoyan Wu
14. Kieran Farr
15. [Gabriel R. Habinyak](https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Udarian) (Miami Dade County)
16. [Gregory Power](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorywpower/); [Cary, NC](https://www.carync.gov/)
17. Cy Rossignol (Taskar Center, UW, Seattle)
18. Drew Gatlin [City of Morgantown, WV, USA](https://www.morgantownwv.gov/); West Virginia University

### Agenda
1. Introductions (any new folks?)
2. OSM US Announcements
1. [Mapping USA](https://openstreetmap.us/events/mapping-usa/2025/) (January 24-25, virtual): Registration is open, and the Call for Proposals closes on November 25th!
2. [State of the Map US 2025](https://openstreetmap.us/events/state-of-the-map-us/2025/) (June 19-21, Boston): Early bird tickets are on sale now, and the [Call for Proposals](https://sessionize.com/state-of-the-map-us-2025) opened yesterday!
3. Take the OpenStreetMap US [Community Survey](https://openstreetmap.app.neoncrm.com/survey.jsp?surveyId=15& )!
4. Recap of October meeting - Alyssa
5. Tiered schema feedback and discussion [Draft PWG Tiered Schema Wiki](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Draft:Foundation/Local_Chapters/United_States/Pedestrian_Working_Group/Schema), [Google Doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/10xwqph8Fq3W5LuRZVf7eQre0cI9rOgcfrnEP8ENFnjo/edit?usp=sharing)
*Amy suggested making edits to the wiki on behalf of folks, if they get in contact with her through Slack. The wiki is open to all for edits!*
1. Roadway tag discussion (London Example)
2. Pedestrian area features - which tier?
3. Demo new crosswalk/sidewalk/curb tool
4. Example images

5. PWG Communication opportunities
1. Video tutorials
2. Mapping USA
3. OSM website
4. ITS4US

### Notes
####

- Amy shared [this](https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/how-to-tag-sidewalk-stubs/119025) ongoing discussion about tagging sidewalk "dongles" on the pedestrian working group slack channel
- Schema wiki page
- Anat: Can we include a note in the Bronze tier section to recommend higher tiers if mappers are interested in including sidewalk geometry. This can help entry-level mappers see the nuance in sidewalk mapping and the diffrence between bronze/silver
- Jacob: maybe we have separate documents: the nitty gritty, and a public-facing guide for people just starting out, more focused on identifying goals
- Amy seconded this idea!
- Clifford suggested that bronze is changed to not be recommended
- Amy: perhaps language like "if you're mapping a new area from scratch, consider starting at the silver level!"
- Justyna recommended putting gold at the top of the list so folks see it first
- Anat: People who come to the wiki will see it as a roadmap, they may think they are supposed to start at Bronze. These tiers are not necessary a linear progression.
- Jacob: Local groups decide mapping standards for their area. In order for the schema to work with all different mapping styles, we may have to include bronze even if it doesn't fit very well with the rest of the list
- Tom: agreed, maybe we give it a name other than "bronze". If this schema becomes too complicated for new mappers, they will go to the easiest option (something to consider when building educational materials)
- Amy: How do we merge the working group's goal of promoting well-mapped sidewalk geometry with the bronze tier? Amy will work on the idea of a separate wiki page - thank you!
- Dan: Mentioned in the chat that the working group has the chance to set a standard for pedestrian mapping, advocating for putting bronze in a separate bucket
- Jacob: Rename bronze to "basic"?
- Drew: Is below diamond able to be mapped using arial imagery, and diamond needs additional knowledge?
- Jacob: This is currently up for discussion! Difficulty fo mapping, impact, use cases, are all part of determining these tiers
- Chad: Maybe we include knowledge source into the user-facing guide on the wiki
- Sam suggested adding this language to the bronze tier portion of the wiki page: "Bronze is **not recommended** as it provides limited data and does not support many advanced pedestrian navigation features."
- Gabriel/Drew: We should better illustrate the tagging schema in the diamond tier for crossing signals, buttons, sounds, etc.
- Jacob: There may be too many tags out there for us to include, we have to decide what is good enough. The schema can include new and evolving tags but maybe not within a tier.
- Amy: an "above and beyond" tier/section?
- Jay suggested adding surface quality and obstruction data in the gold/diamond tier in the chat
- Communication
- Gregory suggested working with learnosm, and Tom also suggested TeachOSM to create content for beginners
- Chad demo-ed a tool in Rapid to automatically add "dongles" and kerb nodes when mapping crosswalks - to be released in the next Rapid update!
- Amy mentioned the "Sidewalks" JOSM plugin, and she has a PWG schema preset on [her github](https://github.com/Lumikeiju/OSM-US-PWG/blob/main/presets/pwg_schema.xml)
- Jacob: there are some Overpass queries to determine which level of the schema a different area can fall and color code the roads/sidewalks. Links will be put in the slack.
- Gregory: this visualiztion illustrates how road-based sidewalk tagging can be used as a method of finding gaps

---

# Meeting: October 15, 2024 3pm EST
### Attendees
1. Chad Blevins, Meta + YouthMappers
2. Clifford Snow, Mount Vernon, WA
3. Alyssa Castronuovo, OSM US
4. Tom Mueller, MassGIS
5. Kieran Farr, [3DStreet](https://3dstreet.org/)
6. Amy Bordenave, Seattle, WA
7. Amy O'Hara, Noblis- Wash DC area
8. Josh Roll (Oregon DOT)
9. [Gregory Power](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorywpower/); [Cary, NC](https://www.carync.gov/)
10. Cy, Taskar Center
11. Jacob Hall
12. Sam Yasen, Taskar Center, UW
13. Anat Caspi, Taskar Center
14. Quincy Morgan, OSM US
15. Jacob Hall, [MapRVA](https://maprva.org)
16. Ali Mohammadi
17. Sean
18. Troy Saltiel

### Agenda
1. Introductions
2. Review September notes (Alyssa will be OSM US contact)
3. OSM US Updates!
4. PWG wiki's [OSM US main WG page](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/United_States#Pedestrian_Working_Group) & [PWG subpage](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/United_States/Pedestrian_Working_Group)
5. [Berlin community wiki example](https://wiki-openstreetmap-org.translate.goog/wiki/Verkehrswende-Meetup/Gehwege?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui)
6. Tags and a Tiered schema [Draft PWG Tiered Schema](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Draft:Foundation/Local_Chapters/United_States/Pedestrian_Working_Group/Schema)

### Notes
* FYA - ITS4US Deployment Program Webinar: Paving the way: Innovative Data Collection Methods for Sidewalk (or Pedestrian) Infrastructure (Presented by Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) – Safe Trips in a Connected Transportation Network (ST-CTN) and University of Washington – Transportation Data Equity Initiative (UW-TDEI)
October 24, 2-3:30 pm ET, free
[Registration link](https://its4usgdotuwwebinar.eventbrite.com/)
* September Notes
* Alyssa C is co-chairing the group with Chad. [e-mail], or just Alyssa on the OSM US slack :)
* Worked mostly on the schema. [Google Doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/10xwqph8Fq3W5LuRZVf7eQre0cI9rOgcfrnEP8ENFnjo/edit?usp=sharing); [Draft Wiki](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Draft:Foundation/Local_Chapters/United_States/Pedestrian_Working_Group/Schema)
* OSM Updates
* State of the Map US 2025 is June 19th-21st in Boston. Sign up for updates [here](https://openstreetmap.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/openstreetmap/subscribe.jsp?subscription=8)
* Mapping USA is January 24th & 25th - mark your calendars!
* We welcomed OSM Americana as the first OSM US Community Project earlier this month. You can learn more [here](https://openstreetmap.us/news/2024/10/welcome-americana/), and if you have a potential project we invite you to apply!
* [Berlin community wiki example](https://wiki-openstreetmap-org.translate.goog/wiki/Verkehrswende-Meetup/Gehwege?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=nui)
* A group of folks created a Berlin-specific mapping guide in response to a law passed locally. Many issues have also been discussed there that we are getting stuck on with the PWG.
* The mapping graphics (examples of how to map) look helpful.
* PWG Wiki
* We have our own stub page now, as well as a schema wiki page
* Schema Discussion
* Group agreed with Bronze text that noted that we recommend against adding sidewalk metadata tags to roadway links.
* **ACTION**: On Silver tier, make more clear that roadway=separate/no should be applied as an upgrade to the bronze teir which just denotes the presence of the sidewalks.
* Significant discussion about the value of mapping a sidewalk tag to the roadway.
* Concerns about the burden on mappers
* Sam noted issues with tooling when there is conflicting information on the roadway vs. on sidewalk geometry. Amy B. noted that there is a benefit to "pre-processing"
* Cy noted that StreetComplete relies on sidewalk=separate tags to hide road-based sidewalk quests
* Suggestion to include use cases/goals with each tier. Already started in the wiki, with more expansion in the Google doc.
* How are we going to communicate these tiers to other mappers?
* Documentation on the Wiki
* Presets in iD/JOSM
* Reach out to educators/education resources in the community to use this as a learning tool
* Give talks at conferences, spread the word on socials
* Tom recommends video tutorials
* Cross-meeting with Education WG to help get the word out and get things documented
* Educators need a sandbox to play in prior to 'go live'
* Continuing the schema discussion... Kerb ways on the diamond tier?
* **Unanswered questions for next meeting:**
* Pedestrian Areas/Plazas - where does this go in our Teirs? What are the use cases?
* Sam suggests Gold.
* [AccessMap Example](https://www.accessmap.app/dir?wp=-122.3074992_47.6543814%27-122.3118996_47.6570329&region=wa.seattle&lon=-122.3112249&lat=47.6552617&z=16.45&sa=1&mu=0.15&md=0.15&ab=0&aps=0)
* What are the "Royal We" going to recommend for how to map sidewalk -> curb/kerb -> crossing?
* need images for wiki
* need to reach consenus on "dongles"/stubs
* Other unanswered questions on the [Google Doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/10xwqph8Fq3W5LuRZVf7eQre0cI9rOgcfrnEP8ENFnjo/edit?usp=sharing)

# Meeting: September 17, 2024 3pm EST
### Attendees
1. Chad Blevins, Meta + YouthMappers
2. Amy Bordenave, Seattle, WA
3. Alyssa Castronuovo, OSM US
4. [Gregory Power](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorywpower/); Cary, NC
5. [David Thompson.](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dthompson/) -- Independent Contributor, Hobbyist, Developer. (#OpenToWork)
6. Quincy Morgan, OSM US
7. Ariel Kadouri - NYC Mapper
8. Maggie Cawley
9. [Daniel Patterson](https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielpatterson87/)
10. Kieran Farr, [3DStreet](https://3dstreet.org/)
11. Claire Fram
12. Elizabeth Sall

### Agenda
1. Welcome and introductions
2. Review August notes
3. Tags and a Tiered schema [Link to OSMUS Sidewalks Working Group Schema Brainstorming Document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/10xwqph8Fq3W5LuRZVf7eQre0cI9rOgcfrnEP8ENFnjo/edit?usp=sharing)

### Notes
- Amy shared [this JOSM preset](https://github.com/Lumikeiju/OSM-US-PWG/blob/main/presets/pwg_schema.xml)
- [Bikes lanes for the USA](https://data.transportation.gov/stories/s/National-Bicycle-Network/88zh-3rqb/)
- Look at this neat [map of sidewalk data](https://www.dvrpc.org/webmaps/sidewalk-gaps/) in the Philly area
- How do we marry tags with the appropriate tiers?
- Look at the trails working group's [decision tree](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/United_States/Trail_Access_Project) for inspiration
- Bronze/lower tier
- Does the silver tier require separate sidewalk geometry AND roads tagged as sidewalk=separate - how much extra work does this introduce?
- Amy developed some [Overpass queries](https://github.com/Lumikeiju/OSM-US-PWG/tree/main/vizualizations) to determine inconsistencies
- All comments resolved on bronze/lower tier!
- Medium/silver tier
- Do we require those connections between kerbs and sidewalk centerlines for this tier (aka "dongles")?
- Amy - Silver is first pass level of detail: we have the centerlines and crossings between them, kerbs and that metadata comes later
- David - a lower barrier to entry
- Surface material tag moved to Gold tier!
- Gold/high quality
- Kieran - informed by user stories, this data may give less than a meter of accuracy
- Separately mapping island geometry
- Amy - when the map becomes useful for people with mobility impairments
- Which of our features are optional, which are reccommended?
- ex. surface material

### Next Steps
- How do we secure a broader adoption of these tiers? Communicate this work!
- Amy volunteered to make a wiki page (thank you)
- Page created: [Draft:Foundation/Local_Chapters/United_States/Pedestrian_Working_Group/Schema](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Draft:Foundation/Local_Chapters/United_States/Pedestrian_Working_Group/Schema)
- Blog post featuring the PWG, include a form or point folks to the Slack to share feedback
- Share work in progress on the community forum
- For next meeting: work through unanswered questions together

---

# Meeting: August 20 2024 3pm EST
### Attendees
1. Alyssa Castronuovo, OSM US
2. Amy O'Hara, Noblis on behalf of USDOT's [ITS4US Program](https://its.dot.gov/its4us/) and just a personal sidewalk nerd
3. Jacob Hall (MapRVA, Richmond, VA)
4. [Teddy Ahlvin](https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/LessThan3Nodes) (Apple, Seattle, WA)
5. [Amy](https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Lumikeiju) (Seattle, WA)
6. Chad Blevins, Meta, Virginia
7. Sean Whitcomb, Phoenix, Arizona
8. Kieran Farr, [3DStreet](https://3dstreet.com)
9. Claire Fram, civic tech in UK, based in S.F.
10. Elizabeth Sall, UrbanLabs LLC
11. Clifford Snow, Mount Vernon, WA
12. Cole Anderson, Chisago City, MN
13. [Gregory Power](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorywpower/); Cary, NC
14. Claire Fram, San Francisco, CA ([Diagonal](https://diagonal.works/))

### Agenda
1. Welcome and introductions
2. Schema Brainstorming Review - [Link to OSMUS Sidewalks Working Group Schema Brainstorming Document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/10xwqph8Fq3W5LuRZVf7eQre0cI9rOgcfrnEP8ENFnjo/edit?usp=sharing)
3. Amy B. demonstration on Overpass Ultra queries available on [her Github](https://github.com/Lumikeiju/OSM-US-PWG/) - data vizualization tools to evaluate the state of pedestrian infrastructure tagging in a given area
- Tactile paving on curb nodes
- Curb types: raised, lowered, etc.
- Roads with sidewalk tags and separately-mapped sidewalks/crosswalks

### Notes

We decided on a 4 tiered system starting with tagging roadways at the lowest tier

### Next Steps

Begin to brainstorm tags that will be associated with each tier.

---

# Meeting: July 23 2024 3pm EST
### Attendees
1. Amy O'Hara [USDOT ITS4US Program](https://its.dot.gov/its4us/) Technical Support, DC Area
2. [Gregory Power](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorywpower/); Cary, NC
3. Jacob Hall (MapRVA, Richmond, VA)
4. Clifford Snow, Mount Vernon, WA
5. Edoardo Neerhut, Meta - Burlingame, CA
6. Cole Anderson, TCAT
7. Sam Yasen, TCAT
8. Daniel Hunsaker, Georgia Tech
9. Amy Bordenave, Seattle, WA
10. Chad Blevins, Meta, Virginia/DC
11. Quincy Morgan, OSM US
12. Ariel Kadouri, NYC
13. Teddy Ahlvin, Apple
14. Thomas Craig, WSDOT
15. David Thompson, Independent Contributor

### Agenda
1. Welcome and introductions
2. Slack: are you a member of the PWG channel (different from sidewalks)

- there is also further pedestrian mapping discussions happening on Discord
- Check #opensidewalks on Slack
3. Review of June meeting [Jacob Hall]
a. Schema Brainstorming - [Link to OSMUS Sidewalks Working Group Schema Brainstorming Document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/10xwqph8Fq3W5LuRZVf7eQre0cI9rOgcfrnEP8ENFnjo/edit?usp=sharing)
b. Use Cases

5. Next Steps
6. Review and comment on the [Schema Brainstorming Document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/10xwqph8Fq3W5LuRZVf7eQre0cI9rOgcfrnEP8ENFnjo/edit?usp=sharing). We will spend the next meeting reviewing and resolving comments.

### Notes

* Clifford: What are the difficulties in routing and using pedestrian data? How would you like to see the data look?
Daniel: Once US DOT approves their project over the next few months they can share more details.
* Ariel: You can analyze tags on OSM to see which tags are the most used, example: https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/projects/valhalla#tags.
* Routing is only one use, and we should consider broader use of data.
* Sam: Taskar Center built their own router https://unweaver.org/getting-started/
* Thomas: are there assumptions with routing pedestrian with roadways?
* David: How do you capture fine details in mapping assessibility features like crosswalk button height (distance from sidewalk, ex: in grass), slope, angle, camber angle, etc.
Surface type is easy to capture and can help with assessibility

#### REVIEW [PWG SCHEMA DOC](https://docs.google.com/document/d/10xwqph8Fq3W5LuRZVf7eQre0cI9rOgcfrnEP8ENFnjo/edit?usp=sharing)

* Lowest tier | the most common throughout the world in OSM. A different between HUGE amount of time from Tier 1 to 2
* Remote Mapping vs On Site, remote mapping sidewalks is hard, we should get more local mappers involved.
* Do we tag roadways? The focus on this WG may be to focus on sidewalk separetely vs tagging roadways?
* Scale is one reason to tag roadways only, it can be done much faster and is still useable as a courser and less useable scale.

---

# Meeting: June 18 2024 3pm EST
### Attendees
1. Jacob Hall (MapRVA, Richmond, VA)
2. David Thompson (Mapper, Bristol, CT) -- still not able to access the slack channel
3. Maggie Cawley (OSM US, Richmond VA)
4. Amy Bordenave, Seattle, WA
5. Kieran Farr (SF, CA) [3dstreet.org](https://3dstreet.org/)
6. Cyrus Chimento (USDOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics)
7. Amy O'Hara (USDOT ITS4US Program Technical Support, DC Area)
8. James Stassinos - Citian - Washington, D.C
9. Harrison Devine - Hobbyist Mapper and OSM US Board Member - Brooklyn, NY
10. Sean Whitcomb - Mesa Community College, Phoenix, AZ
11. Quincy Morgan, OSM US
12. Daniel Hunsaker (Atlanta, GA - Georgia Tech)
13. Sam Yasen, Taskar Center, UW, Seattle, WA
14. Polly Okunieff (Boston, MA)
15. Chad Blevins, Meta (Virginia)
16. Daniel Patterson
17. Drew Dara-Abrams
18. [Gregory Power](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorywpower/); Cary, NC
19. Cole Anderson
20. Alice Klein
22. David, Connecticut
23. Yunzhi Lin

### Agenda
1. Welcome and introductions
2. Review of May meeting
3. SotM 2024 recap
* [Review BOF Notes](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TXBASRt9QO8jXjj6Gja6eJT7f9RqDke04kLnzRV1ikU/edit)
4. Schema Brainstorming
* [Link to Document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/10xwqph8Fq3W5LuRZVf7eQre0cI9rOgcfrnEP8ENFnjo/edit#heading=h.97mcv7t9019u)
5. Around the Rooms
6. Next Steps
7. Next meeting July 16 (during Esri UC)

### Notes
May meeting recap: brainstorming document with a tiered approach to how to map sidewalks
SOTMUS recap - lots of discussion about challenges - notes linked above
* There were a lot of talks about using AI to capture sidewalk geometry and/or attributes in order to scale the collection of data.
* Discussion about how different groups are coming to the table with different "styles" of mapping the sidewalks.
* what do you wish you had more time to discuss at sotmus? were there any next steps?
* conversations about improving tooling to support humans - who are more adept at mapping the nuances of pedestrian infrastructure
*
Schema Brainstorming Discussion:
* Older OSM forum conversation (https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/is-there-consensus-on-mapping-pavements-sidewalks-separately-to-roads/1067/74)
* Discussion re "Tiers" of levels of detail for mapping (from Schema Brainstorming doc)
* From the doc: Lowest, Lower / Medium / High quality
* Kieran - Alternative classification example from CityGML research paper: Reality, Linear Representation, Parametric Representation, Areal Representation (geometry) https://www.mdpi.com/ijgi/ijgi-09-00603/article_deploy/html/images/ijgi-09-00603-g001.png
* Polly - it may not be linear (a,b,c) but actually a matrix or decision tree to decide which Tier of LOD for sidewalk mapping is appropriate; may be helpul to have info embedded in tags so they're not separated
* Maggie - Example of a "decision tree" instead of valued tiers https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/United_States/Trail_Access_Project . What were the #1 things that would be most impactful for mappers to add if they only have 5 minutes to contribute to pedestrian accessibility
* here is the task we made for trails w/ the instructions https://tasks.openstreetmap.us/projects/452/tasks
* Tagging the road? bare minimum? we'll still need to tag the road plus - what's on the actual sidewalk
* educate mappers on directional ways - what is right? wrong? left?
Next Steps
* Survey the group - what are 5 tags you would like people to use when mapping?
* Review and edit/comment on the schema brainstorming document
* in addition to the tags, is there a collection of example lat / long or specific way IDs with the tags we’re discussing? (or places that DON'T have the tags that we think they should have?)
* Next meeting - revisit user stories to find commonalities
* GDOT/ARC Concept of Operations includes user needs in Section 4.2 [Phase 1 Concept of Operations (ConOps)— Atlanta Regional Commission ITS4US Deployment Project (bts.gov)](https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/59820)
* UW Concept of Operations See 4.2
[Phase 1 Concept of Operations (ConOps)—University of Washington ITS4US Deployment Project (bts.gov)](https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/58675)

---

# Meeting: May 21 2024 3pm EST
### Attendees
1. Amy Bordenave, Seattle, WA
2. [Gregory Power](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorywpower/); Cary, NC
3. Clifford Snow (US-WA / Mount Vernon)
4. Chad Blevins (Meta)
5. Amy O'Hara (Noblis, DC metro) (supporting USDOT ITS JPO)
6. Jacob Hall (MapRVA, Richmond, VA)
7. Cyrus Chimento (USDOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics)
8. Quincy Morgan, OSM US
9. Kieran Farr, [3DStreet.org](https://3dstreet.org/)
10. Harrison Devine, Brooklyn NY, Hobbyist Mapper and OSMUS Board Member
11. Cy Rossignol, Seattle, WA, University of Washington
12. Sam Yasen, Taskar Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
13. Ariel Kadouri - NYC Mapper
14. April Webster - Software Engineer, Data modeling and AI at IBM
15. James Stassinos - Citian - Washington, D.C

### Agenda
1. Welcome and introductions
2. Review of April meeting
3. Discussion: Topic - Schema
a. What should be mapped?
b. Should we take a tiered approach for what to map?
c. Inspiration for schema?
* [Taskar Center's OpenSideWalk Schema](https://github.com/OpenSidewalks/OpenSidewalks-Schema)
* [Georgia Department of Transportation](https://georgia-map.com/)
4. Tag discussion
a. Are the abscence of kerbs (kerb=no) or (kerb=flush)?
b. Node along way with pole to indiciate pole blocks sidewalk?
c. Challenges with cases where sidewalk starts/ends abruptly?
d. (highway=footway;footway=link) or (highway=footway;)
5. Next Steps
- [Link to OSMUS Sidewalks Working Group Schema Brainstorming Document](https://docs.google.com/document/d/10xwqph8Fq3W5LuRZVf7eQre0cI9rOgcfrnEP8ENFnjo/edit?usp=sharing)
7. Next meeting June 18

### Notes
#### Notes Regarding What We Should Consider for Use Cases
* Bringing up Accessible routes:
* There are no shortage of requirements to meet the latest PROWAG guidelines. Lots of questions from the community IMO on ADA-compliant vs. wheelchair=yes since ADA-compliance is a legal definition with a lot of very precise definitions for each criteria. Generally I think people use wheelchair=yes when it seems accessible vs. officially compliant.

#### Notes regarding Taskar OpenSidewalks Schema
* Wisam Yasen shared of the key elements of OpenSidewalks Schema https://github.com/OpenSidewalks/OpenSidewalks-Schema/blob/main/README.md#1-core-entities
* Core entity models: Nodes, Edges, Zones; Point: fire hydrant; Line: wall or fency; polygon: planter
* Note from Amy O'Hara: I will note that the GDOT ITS4US team has taken a pretty different approach than OpenSidewaks. They will be presenting in the same session as Taskar and Chad at SoTM on the first day and another session on the last
* Emphasize the use of street imagery.

#### Notes regarding Georgia Department of Transportation approach
* More information: https://georgia-map.com/
* Some work to be done to help this proposal comply with other standards for open formats
* Curbs are essential, may be difficult to find broad adoption if those are optional
* Rough Summary: Takes an extract of OSM and they run their own routing. The focus was on primary ways and nodes to denote the sidewalks, crossings, and curb ramps. But they don't necessarily put separate nodes at the various points of a "porkchop island" for when there are slip lanes, but just use one general point in the middle of that connects to the various crossing ways. The project team is primarily focused on tying asset data to stips of sidewalks to calculate the "impedence" experienced by users with different disabilities.
* ACTION: Amy O'Hara to provide link to webinar in Slack once posted on [ITS4US Website](https://its.dot.gov/its4us/)
* OSM US SOTM PResentations:
* 6/7 @ 3pm in Alpine, before Chad presents an update on this WG. *Standardizing OSM Pedestrian Networks*
* 6/8 @ 1:45pm in Alpine */OSM Network Verification using Ground-Level Video and Aerial Orthoimages for Pedestrian Ways/*

#### Notes
Discussion Questions:
Let's work backwards towards a baseline schema, with the goal of identifying 4-5 crucial tags and others that are 'nice to haves.'
- Who is distributing OSM data to users?
- What are the attributes/tags they are using?
- Is there overlap?

Curb = No vs Curb = Flush

---

# Meeting: April 16, 2024 3pm EST
### Attendees
1. Maggie Cawley, OSM US
2. Daniel Solow, mapper in Queens NY interested in better pedestrian routing
3. Jacob Hall, MapRVA
4. David Thompson - A regular guy from Connecticut who cares about public spaces [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dthompson/)
5. Chad Blevins, Meta/YouthMappers (Virginia)
6. Daniel Dufour, City of Chattanooga
7. Gregory Titievsky
8. [Gregory Power](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorywpower/); Cary, NC
9. Harrison Devine - OSM US Board Member - Brooklyn, NY
10. James Stassinos - Citian - Washington, D.C
11. Quincy Morgan, OSM US
12. Cyrus Chimento, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Washington, DC
13. Katherine Rudzki - GIS Analyst in Raleigh, NC
14. Kieran Farr, [3DStreet.org](https://3DStreet.org), SF, CA
15. Amy Bordenave - Seattle, WA
16. Ariel Kadouri - NYC Mapper
17. Elizabeth Sall, [UrbanLabs LLC](https://urbanlabs.io/) - Live in Seattle; Originally from Cary, NC! :wave:
18. Cole Anderson, TCAT, Seattle

### Agenda
1. Welcome and introductions
2. Review of March meeting
3. Survey Results (Chad)
- Tags/Schema and Editing Guidance are key to data governance in OSM
- Can data be visible in screen readers
- What are the gaps in between data creation and data use, and how can we help fill in those gaps? (Jacob)
- How do we make the data more useful and useable to everyday people? Publicize data creation and use. (Clifford)
- Accessmap (https://www.accessmap.app/), can we identify areas/cities where data is useable for certian types of use? Can we build a tool to gauge data quality
- What is the current guidance that mappers are using to map sidewalks? What are people using right now? What are the differences?
- develop a tiered system for routability and useability of data
- How do you represent pedestrian paths in a way that is useful to users? e.g., where the sidewalk ends, or degrades, or there is an obstacle
- Accessibility: what comprises ADA compliance? (PROWAG) what tags feed into determinations of ADA compliance? What level of detail is available from imagery?
5. Discussion
6. Around the rooms & announcements
7. Recap and next steps

### Notes
Link to sign up for OSM US Slack - slack.openstreetmap.us
Other links shared:
https://github.com/dotbts/BPA/tree/main?tab=readme-ov-file#national-collaboration-on-bicycle-pedestrian-and-accessibility-infrastructure-data
https://www.accessmap.app/
might be good inspiration for a mapping playbook https://contrapunctus.codeberg.page/blog/mapping-party-tips.html
https://hackmd.io/legG6QzVREKTsiTSxUS2zA?view#Schema
https://tasks.openstreetmap.us/projects/555
State of the Map US - so many ped talks! and a BoF
future idea - demo ped mapping tools
Survey results presentation:
- 21 responses
- diversity of expertise in the working group!
- participation is also diverse - nice to have varied interests/skills
- What Folks Hope to Get Out of the Working Group:
- Further work on standards and automatic data ingestion
- Improving workflow (tools, editing, supplementary data)
- Tagging/schema and editing guidance
- Have opportunities for training on schema/tagging
- ADA Compliance is important for many users and is a federal requirement.
- Priorities
1. Editing Guidance
2. Tags/Schema
3. Tool Improvement
4. Data Generation
5. Data Governance
6. Other
- Are you interested in a formal role within the Pedestrian Working Group?
- 11 yes
- 8 no

#### Desired outcomes of the group - many!
Screen reader accessible? Schema
use the use cases to help drive working group activities and priorities
Metric to measure when an area is ready for certain types of use
what are people doing now? what's the guidance? and then who is the end user of that workflow?

- [Highway Wiki Page](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Map_features#Highway)
- [Sidewalks Wiki Page](https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Sidewalks)
- [OpenSidewalks Schema](https://tcat.cs.washington.edu/opensidewalks/)

#### Schema

What are the basic user stories we can use to "work backwards"?

Who are the users?
- the jay walker / creator of desire paths
- walk anywhere pedestrian
- sidewalk user that follows the infrastructure (curb cuts, crossings)
- Ada compliant sidewalks - ramps
- what are the edgecases?
- Motivations for the journey: Practical Journey, Exercise, Mental Wellness, Social

What are the different situations in the environment?
- no sidewalks at all
- pot holes, hindrances (roots, broken sidewalks, holes)
- [ADA compliance](https://www.ada.gov/law-and-regs/design-standards/) - but limited to small area
- Environmental stress: high traffic/no shade, vs benches and green space

Around the Rooms
- playbook? https://contrapunctus.codeberg.page/blog/mapping-party-tips.html
- https://openstreetmap.us/events/state-of-the-map-us/ lots of ped talks
- Based on the above Users and Environment contexts, what are the "jobs to be done" by the Users (ie what do they want to accomplish)? This can help provide a few complete sentences describing user, context, job-to-be-done, that can then serve as "test cases" against schema work proposed by Committee going forward.
- Some potential exercises to find the "jobs to be done" is to consider use cases that cannot be currently satisfied by existing schema, interview target users or put yourself in their shoes to imagine what their most common requests may be, etc.

---

# Meeting: March 5, 2024
### Attendees
1. Maggie Cawley, OSM US, Virginia USA
2. Chad Blevins, Meta, Virginia USA
3. Jacob Hall, AidData - [MapRVA](https://maprva.org), Virginia USA
4. Sam Yasen - Taskar Center, Seattle, WA USA
5. Olivia Quesada - Taskar Center, Seattle, Washington USA
6. Tony Hull - Civilstreet, Minneapolis, MN USA
7. Will I - Texas, USA
8. Vivek Bansal - San Jose
9. Cole Anderson - Taskar Center, Seattle, Washington USA
10. Troy Saltiel, Sweet Streets - Salt Lake City, Utah USA
11. Daniel Solow - Queens, New York
12. James Stassinos - Citian - Washington, D.C
13. Tabb Sanford - Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency
14. [Chris Wichman](https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriswichman/) - [AirSage](https://airsage.com/) - Bergen County, NJ
15. Pooria Choobchian - University of Illinois Chicago, IL USA
16. Shriya Rangarajan - University of California, Davis, CA, USA
17. David Thompson - A regular guy from Connecticut who cares about public spaces [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/dthompson/)
18. Aaron Villere - Denver Regional Council of Governments, Denver, CO USA
19. Cyrus Chimento - Bureau of Transportation Statistics
20. Jessica Moberly - Town of Leland, North Carolina
21. Amy O'Hara - Noblis (Washington, DC aream)
22. Clifford Snow - Mount Vernon, WA
24. Greg Titievsky - Chicago (ex-Mapbox)
25. Dante Volpe - Staten Island, NY
26. Meead Saberi (footpath.ai)
27. Ariel Kadouri - NYC mapper
28. Korawich Kavee - PhD student Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, US
29. Drew Dara-Abrams - [Interline Technologies](https://www.interline.io/), SF Bay Area
30. Jessica Breen - American University, Washington, DC
31. Ian Hollander - SE Michigian
32. Harrison Devine - OSM US Board Member and avid sidewalk mapper - Brooklyn, NY
33. Kaveh Farokhi - University of Maryland, College Park
34. Brian Fulfrost - Washington Dept. of Transportation (Active Transportation Division)
35. Ali Mohammadi - K. N. Toosi University of Technology, Iran
36. Minh Nguyễn – Open Source San José and OpenHistoricalMap – San Jose, CA
37. Edgar Lemus – COMUNITAR.IO – Washington, D.C.
38. Amy Bordenave - Seattle, WA
39. Roland Hansson [DCR Design](https://dcrdesign.net/), CA
40. Polly Okunieff, GO Systems -- Boston, MA
41. Arnold Nkwabong - OSMF Volunteer - Yaounde, Cameroon
42. [Kieran Farr](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kfarr/) - [3DStreet](https://www.3dstreet.org/)
43. Kunal Mehta, Taskar Center
44. Will Ward - Nashville, TN
45. Anas Almassrahy - Senior Planner - City of Sugar Land, TX - Sugar Land, TX
46. Jon Woyame, Etch Ltd -- Columbus, OH

### Agenda
1. Welcome and introductions (Maggie) (move to break out rooms if more than 25 people)
* Your Name, affiliation, why you joined today
* OSM US Code of Conduct
2. Overview of Working Group (Chad)
* Goals and objectives - ask people in signup to ask what they would like to see the WG achieve - if WG is successful what will be accomplished in 1 year.
* Activities
* [Link to presentation](https://www.canva.com/design/DAF9jcoFKb4/2hH5vScdLaeZgz4utao4Wg/view?utm_content=DAF9jcoFKb4&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=editor)
3. Around the room - build ideas
4. Recap and next steps
* poll for topics to focus on?
* 1 or 2 more co-chairs?

### Notes
#### Reasons people are here:
- On accessibility - how to assess accessibility
- mapping sidewalks and other pedestrian features
- make more good data available
- how to apply tech to help with issues
- to bring taskar to the table / represent access map

#### Things we can work on - Discussion
- Project Coordination
- Feature Geometry
- how to connect street crossings with sidewalks? complex intersection geometries
- cater to routing-specific needs, for example by using footway=link
- Tools & Tech
- Guidelines that are embedded into editing tools
- Tools to validate connectivity and navigability of sidewalk networks
- consider the level of mapper
- presets vs nuances
- More automation around adding curbs
- Remember that established conventions do exist
- Curbs - adding curbs makes data more useable
- Baseline Schema
- that allows for gradual 'ramping up' of mapping level
- Editor preset checks to improve data quality and reduce errors
- See rapid's introduction of crosswalk way + node tag syncing as an example
- Resources for editing projects
- templates / ideas for new sidewalk mapping projects (in tasking manager, for example)
- Who are we mapping for - identify the need
- Consider various needs. As in don't map accessible yes or no, but map with detailed attributes; kerb=raised/lowered, tactile_paving+ and other details.
- How are people mapping - armchair or on the ground?
- Schema should offer ability to differentiate and work with walkability in terms of small streets without sidewalks vs large streets with sidewalks, etc.

#### Example User Stories
- As a user with limited mobility I wish to have extremely accurate (10cm precision) routing information to navigate from point A to B (where A and B are less than 1,000 meters and in an urban area with a metro population of greater than 1M)
- As a local resident I wish to advocate for the modification my streetscape (such as sidewalk and curb geometry) via city agency and must accurately describe using a standard-compliant method the proposed changes and geographical localization.
- As a DOT employee I wish to run a query to generate a report on the number of streets with x pedestrian traffic (generated from third-party transportation demand modeling software) that have a sidewalk of less than y width or no sidewalk at all in order to allow me to see where is the highest priority cooridors to build new or extended sidewalks
- As an elected official I would like to identify key infrastructure that is "missing" to complete a "network" of connected pedestrian or wheeled mobility paths (with no discontinuities) in an area centered around long/lat with radius x meters
- As a person with limited mobility, I want to quickly learn what destinations are reachable from a location, so I can decide on where to live based on accessibilty of local amenities
- As a researcher I would like to do advanced geospatial analysis on sidewalk networks in conjunction with other data, such as vegetation data to understand which regions have shadier sidewalks.
- As a local resident, I would like to be able to use pedestrian routing tools in order to more accurately estimate the length of my trip.
- As a local resident, I'd like to be notified when new bike-reachable destinations become accessible through the off-street (physically separated) infrastructure network
- As a third-party mapping company, I want to be able to allow users to customize their preferences/abilities so I can provide routes that are comfortably navigable. (E.g., a manual wheelchair user is routed up a nearby street that is not as steep.)

#### Existing Projects/Initiatives
- [FGDC Bicycle, Pedestrian, and Accessibility Infrastructure Data](https://github.com/dotbts/BPA?tab=readme-ov-file#national-collaboration-on-bicycle-pedestrian-and-accessibility-infrastructure-data)
- Taskar Center at University of Washington
- [Open Sidewalks Schema](https://github.com/OpenSidewalks/OpenSidewalks-Schema)
- [Tasking Manager](https://tasks.opensidewalks.com/)
- [accessmap.app](https://www.accessmap.app)
- https://wheelmap.org/
- Fitness/hiking navigation apps - Strava, RideWithGPS, OnTheGoMap

#### Comments
- To add some context for what some are bringing up in terms of sidewalk accessibility - it's been raised that there is a difference between someone doing aerial mapping and saying wheelchair=yes and actually knowing on the ground that the sidewalk segment is ADA compliant (which is a very specific list of requirements)
- There exists a larger fundamental issue with pedestrian facilities in that they are assets in the public right-of-way that are not uniformly owned or provided by common agency. Unlike streets, transit and most bicycle facilities sidewalks lack a consistent source for data integrity, updating and maintenance. How can this group or effort help establish clear standards for pedestrian asset inventory that can be taken up by transport agencies (through policy)? Or is this even possible? Think about ADA Transition plans, Crash data reporting, snow removal, capital programs etc.
- Wealth of data avalaible from cities that could be imported
- tooling could be improved to make it easier - ecosystem of folks working on it
- Not designed for routing, so importing can create unhelpful data
- often in polygon format but not great for routing/wayfinding. Process is a bit messy

#### Links shared during the meeting
Prior art links:
1) https://www.mdpi.com/ijgi/ijgi-09-00603/article_deploy/html/images/ijgi-09-00603-g001.png
2) https://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/9/10/603
3) https://github.com/d-wasserman/shared-row
4) https://docs.streetmix.net/contributing/code/reference/segments
5) A novel method for measuring Walkability: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856423003166

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To join the OSM US Slack: slack.openstreetmap.us & ask Maggie or another member to be added to the private working group channel