[Tagging] highway=footway - Advanced definition: Distinction footway vs path

[Mateusz Konieczny]

On Mon, 03 Aug 2015 19:30:09 +0900
johnw <johnw at mac.com> wrote:

> I DO NOT WANT path & footway merged - we need to be able to show
> rough/informal paths.

The problem is that distinction of highway=path and highway=footway is
meaningless, like with natural=wood vs landuse=forest as it varies
from location to location and from mapper to mapper.

Various mappers use different distinctions, other consider them
equivalent (highway=path was not supposed to imply anything about
quality, importance or surface).

Changing definitions now is pointless - who is going to resurvey and
verify over 9 million highway=path/footway ways to ensure that it will
fit new definition?