[OSM-newbies] Marking Public_Footpaths on Farm Access Tracks

[SomeoneElse]

Dudley Ibbett wrote:
> Hi
>
> It is possible to have a public_footpath rendered on tpo of a farm 
> access track?  I haven't found an example yet.  Presumably the 
> rendering is base on the highway tag (footway/service) and therefore 
> this might not be possible.  I have an example where a public_footpath 
> (highway/footway) goes across a field, along part of a farm access 
> track (highway/service) and then enters another field 
> (highway/footway).  It would seem preferable to tag the access track 
> as a highway/service but ideally I'd like to mark the public_footpath 
> on top.
There are two bits to this:

1) How do you tag a farm track so that it's both a farm track and a 
public footpath in the data?

2) How do you see the fact that it's both on a map?

The answer to (1) is that (in England and Wales*) adding the tag 
"designation=public_footpath" has become the accepted way for saying 
this [whatever it is] really is a public footpath, in addition to the 
regular access tags (foot, bicycle, etc.).

That goes alongside the highway (and perhaps surface) definitions for 
the physical attributes of the track/path, so:

highway=footway
designation=public_footpath
foot=yes

would be how I'd** map a public footpath across a field that's obviously 
a footway rather than something else, and

highway=track
surface=gravel
designation=public_footpath
foot=yes
access=private

would be how I'd map a public footpath along a farm gravel track that 
marked as "private" for other traffic.

"designation" is also useful in those cases where public footpaths run 
along public roads.

Re (2), unfortunately the OSM site's "Mapnik" map doesn't show render 
the designation=public_footpath tag in any way (and the database that it 
uses is optimised for the tags that it does render).  There are, 
however, other ways of seeing designation tags, such as Nick Whitelegg's 
excellent "Freemap":

http://www.free-map.org.uk/freemap/about.html

For example, here:
http://www.free-map.org.uk/freemap/index.php?zoom=15&lat=53.09653&lon=-1.46609&layers=B0TT
is an area that shows both public footpaths and a bridleway

Other options include maps for Garmin handhelds made with "mkgmap".  
That uses an easy-to-understand "style file" mechanism that essentially 
allows you to render anything in OSM data as anything that a Garmin can 
display.

Cheers,
Andy

* the rest of the UK doesn't have this system, a point not always 
grasped by writers of pages in the OSM wiki with "United Kingdom" in the 
title.

** other tags are available.  There have been lots of discussions on OSM 
lists such as talk-GB and tagging about this sort of stuff, enough to 
send anyone to sleep.  "designation" does, however, seems to have 
widespread acceptance within England and Wales.


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