[Tagging] Using highway=footway as an area

[fly]

Am 09.08.2014 18:06, schrieb Dave F.:
> Hi
> 
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/51.49428/-0.12149
> 
> I've noticed highway=footway is being used as an area across Lambeth
> Bridge: North side as a closed polygon; South side within a relation.
> (checking the history previously they were both highway=pedestrian.
> 
> I thought that tag should be used linearly only, as per the wiki page:
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Footway
> & areas should be highway=pedestrian. You'll notice though that mapnik
> renders them the same way. Is that part of the recent carto upgrade?
> 
> To me, having two different tags (footway, pedestrian) to represent the
> same type of object is confusing, as is using the same tag (footway) to
> represent two different types of object.

Mmh, I tend to differ between an area signed as pedestrian and a square
without any sign or signs for foot, bicycle and other modes.

I also met highway=path + area=yes.

In general highway=pedestrian is often interpreted wrong, especially if
lots of special access condition are tag. At least for bicycle this is
less problematic if we are using path or footway.

Why do we use highway=pedestrians at all instead of footway or path as
long as it is not explicitly signed ?

Is there any problem with interpreting all three values with area=yes as
equal or maybe even consider them a bit different ?

cu fly