[Tagging] "new" highway tag for small and informal footpaths; trail

[Richard Welty]

On 10/22/10 12:31 PM, M∡rtin Koppenhoefer wrote:
> They have to be not planned, not maintained, ground
> surface: they are simply there because people (or animal) use them.
>
> There might be some intersection with small paths in some cases, but
> usually I'd also say that paths are broader.
this will lead to some confusion in the US, as we have an extensive
network of maintained wilderness trails, e.g.

The Applalachian Trail (2175 miles from Georgia to Maine)
The Long Trail (famous in northern New England)

and various others. you intend highway=trail to apply to a
substantially less formal entity, but i predict that if highway=trail
is there, it will be misused in the US.

it'd be interesting to see if highway=trail actually appears now, and
on what sorts of trails.

i'd recommend some descriptive tags associated with highway=path
and highway=footway to further characterize the nature of the path.

richard