[Tagging] StreetComplete 10 / foot=yes on residential

[Greg Troxel]

Joseph Eisenberg <joseph.eisenberg at gmail.com> writes:

>> The question asked is "Is this street accessible for pedestrians here?".
>> It doesn't ask for the user's opinion on how safe it is.
>>
>
> I believe this is the wrong question. It should be “Are pedestrians legally
> prohibited from walking along this road?”

Agreed.  The tag is about legal access and therefore a question intended
to set the tag must be phrased that way, clearly enough that app users
who *do not understand the tagging rules* will answer correctly.

FWIW, around me pedestrians may walk on almost any road except
Interstate Highways, and perhaps a few other roads that feel like that
(which would then be tagged individually as foot=no, bicycle=no,
horse=no, and perhaps the not really existing farm_equipment=no).  Not
long ago I saw a bicyclist on the side of a road that is clearly trunk:
2 lanes each way, divided, traffic lights every 1.5 miles or so, posted
45 mph with typical speeds 65 mph.   Very unsuual, but not prohibited.
And Paul has a good point that riding on that road on the right side of
the breakdown lane is arguably safer than on a lower-class road that's
far narrower.  A bicycle example, but applies equally to pedestrians.

I can see that there might be a frustration about OSM not having tags
that represent "would a prudent person think it's scary to walk here",
but the usual OSM response is to look for an existing tag and if not
define one.