Guelph Sidewalks

A reference layer of the sidewalks published by the City of Guelph — 5,245 lines from the City's Sidewalks layer, 715.8 km of them built — ready to add to the OpenStreetMap editors iD and JOSM while you map.

City data: 2026-10-17 · tiles rebuilt: 2026-10-17

Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – City of Guelph. Source: Sidewalks (OpenData2/FeatureServer/0).

Preview

The raster layer drawn over OpenStreetMap, from zoom 15: cyan lines are built sidewalks, orange ones proposed.

Coverage vs OpenStreetMap: 70.4 km of City sidewalk has no OSM line within 15 m — a mapper's worklist, street by street, with an interactive map.

Two layers — which to use

Vector layer	Interactive. Click a line to read its tags (layer `sidewalks`: `id`, `status`, `surface`, `width` in m, `installed` year, `length` in m). Zooms 14–19. Best in iD.
Raster layer	Lines drawn directly on the tiles. A tracing backdrop over aerial imagery. Best in JOSM.

Add to iD

Vector layer (interactive)

Open the iD editor and press U for the Map Data panel.
Under Custom Map Data, open the settings and paste this URL:

https://guelph-maps.github.io/guelph-sidewalks-layer/tiles/vector/{z}/{x}/{y}.pbf

Zoom in, then click any line to see its tags in the inspector.

Raster layer

Open the Background panel and choose Custom.
Paste this URL template:

https://guelph-maps.github.io/guelph-sidewalks-layer/tiles/raster/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

As a background it replaces the imagery; the vector layer is the one to use over imagery in iD.

Add to JOSM

Raster layer (recommended for JOSM)

Open Preferences → Imagery and click +TMS.
Paste this entry (the tms[15,18] prefix sets the zoom range; JOSM scales it up past z18):

tms[15,18]:https://guelph-maps.github.io/guelph-sidewalks-layer/tiles/raster/{zoom}/{x}/{y}.png

Give it a name such as Guelph Sidewalks, click OK, then enable it from the Imagery menu above your aerial imagery. Note JOSM's placeholder is {zoom}, not {z}.

Vector layer (optional)

JOSM can also add the vector tiles via Preferences → Imagery → +MVT:

https://guelph-maps.github.io/guelph-sidewalks-layer/tiles/vector/{zoom}/{x}/{y}.pbf

Notes

Guelph maps its sidewalks as separate ways (highway=footway + footway=sidewalk), not as sidewalk=* tags on the road, so tracing from this layer follows the local convention. Where a road already carries sidewalk=*, that is a valid way to map it too.
Tracing a sidewalk at a time from imagery, with this layer as a guide, is ordinary mapping. Copying the City's lines into OSM by script would be an import, and needs an import proposal and community discussion first.
The City states its sidewalks are accurate to 1–5 m; the imagery decides where a line goes. Proposed sidewalks (orange) may not have been poured yet.
Vector tiles are pre-rendered through zoom 19; raster tiles for z15–18 (the editor overzooms them further).
Tiles are refreshed weekly from the City's service.
This is a reference layer — check it against current imagery before copying anything into OpenStreetMap. Where a sidewalk in OSM already exists, improve it in place rather than replacing it, so its history and tags survive.