[Tagging] Reviving the path discussion - the increasing importance of trails in OSM

[Mateusz Konieczny]

May 26, 2020, 20:50 by bradhaack at fastmail.com:

> Yes!  We have an overload of tags for trails, many poorly defined, many rarely used.   KISS -  keep it simple stupid.  I think it would help if we narrowed the focus for cycleway and footway.
> How about this, as default:
> cycleway - paved path that a typical tourist or casual rider can ride on a road bike.
> footway - smooth path, very firm surface or paved that is good for someone with less than average ability.
> bridleway- for exclusive (or almost exclusive ) horse trails
> path - for everything else.   Implies not paved.  Routers should not route road bikers here.
>
> The difficulty for bikes (& maybe hiking) can be simple green/blue/black similar to what is used on US bike trails, and ski areas.
>

The tricky part is that such redefining is not solving problem of already collected data.

You need to resurvey all already collected data and mark it as reviewed (by adding some tag,
for example reviewed_to_new_path_scheme=yes or explicit surface value).

Overall I see no benefit over explicit tagging of a surface value.

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