[OSM-newbies] Highway vs Road (was "What to do about alleys?")

[Someoneelse]

G H S wrote:
> Why is everything tagged as "highway", and then often combined with 
> types that aren't highways at all?  I would have expected something like 
> "road=" followed by things like "highway", "alley", "residential", whatever.

I think that it's purely historical - I seem to remember someone saying 
that the original names for ways roads and paths (highway, footway, 
etc.) all ended in "way".

In English English, "Highway" doesn't have the same connotation of "big 
road between cities" that it has in American English - it more or less 
means the same as "road".

Cheers,
Andy