[Tagging] path vs footway

[Dan S]

One of the most important differences is that for highway=footway, we
know that pedestrians are allowed (unless other tags alter the access
explicitly). With highway=path we can't always assume that pedestrians
are allowed along it. I know there are routing systems that care about
this difference.

As others have said, the choice of which to use is very very fuzzy,
but if you use highway=path please make sure to use some access
tagging to say what kind of traffic may pass along it.

Best
Dan


2014-11-03 22:38 GMT+00:00 Mike Thompson <miketho16 at gmail.com>:
> I am editing trails in a US National Park of which I have first hand
> knowledge.  Nearly all trails in this area have been tagged
> "highway=footway" although most of them are open equally to foot
> traffic and horse traffic. Any reason to leave them as "footways"? The
> wiki suggests that "path" is more appropriate. It would be nice to
> have consistent data, otherwise it suggests that one trail is
> different from the next when if fact they are not.
>
> By the way, might this be an artifact of the defaults in Potlatch?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike
>
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