https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/03/230316140925.htm

Now MIT researchers, along with colleagues from multiple other universities, have developed an open-source tool that uses aerial imagery and image-recognition to create complete maps of sidewalks and crosswalks. The tool can help planners, policymakers, and urbanists who want to expand pedestrian infrastructure.

"In the urban planning and urban policy fields, this is a huge gap," says Andres Sevtsuk, an associate professor at MIT and a co-author of a new paper detailing the tool's capabilities. "Most U.S. city governments know very little about their sidewalk networks. There is no data on it. The private sector hasn't taken on the task of mapping it. It seemed like a really important technology to develop, especially in an open-source way that can be used by other places."