[OSM-newbies] Pavements and footpaths along streets

[Akkana Peck]

> On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 08:17, Eddy Petrișor <eddy.petrisor at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I agree, may I suggest these defaults:
> >
> > motorway   : sidewalk=none
> > trunk      : sidewalk=none
> > primary    : sidewalk=none
> > secondary  : sidewalk=both
> > tertiary   : sidewalk=both
> > residential: sidewalk=both
> > track      : sidewalk=none
[ ... ]
> > I would be very surprised to find out there are many more residential roads
> > without sidewalks than there are with.
> >
> > Having sidewalk=both by default for residential seems like a *VERY* sane
> > value, since in most residential areas people are expected to do a lot of
> > walking, so sidewalks would be very common.

Arlindo Pereira writes:
> At a first glance, I think that these approach makes sense in big
> cities, but it's to be noticed that on small cities (at least here in
> Brazil) it's quite common that the highway=residential and
> highway=living_street have no sidewalk and people walk on the street
> itself.

That's most common in California as well. Suburban residential
streets very often have no sidewalk, though large busy streets in
commercial districts usually have one. Around here, defaulting
residential streets to sidewalk=none would make more sense (and I
agree with the person who said it's worse to map something that
isn't there than not to map something that is).

Does it have to have a default at all? I thought most tags just
weren't there by default, so there would be no sidewalk tag unless
someone added it and specified none, both etc. Or is it just a
question of what the default rendering should be for a road with
no sidewalk tag?

	...Akkana