[Tagging] When does highway=footway become highway=pedestrian?

[nathan case]

Thanks all for the comments so far.

This is the Google maps Streetview link: https://www.google.com/maps/@52.4457248,-1.8176195,3a,75y,243.25h,90.9t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1svoVWzs3jxPFNcpfhvpc4eg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Hopefully that works OK. Travel to the right to see more.

Cheers.

From: Mateusz Konieczny via Tagging <tagging at openstreetmap.org>
Sent: 27 October 2021 12:07
To: Tag discussion, strategy and related tools <tagging at openstreetmap.org>
Cc: Mateusz Konieczny <matkoniecz at tutanota.com>
Subject: Re: [Tagging] When does highway=footway become highway=pedestrian?




Oct 26, 2021, 16:00 by nathancase at outlook.com<mailto:nathancase at outlook.com>:
Hi all,

I’ve just posted this on the Wiki discussion page (https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Tag:highway%3Dpedestrian#.22For_town_centres_and_civic_areas.22) but the thread is a little old and I know not everyone reads the Wiki anyway…

I’m wondering at what point, if at all, a highway=footway becomes highway=pedestrian (i.e., a pedestrian area)?
There are several things here
- sidewalk tags (sidewalk as attribute of road)
- highway=footway
- highway=pedestrian for pedestrian road
- area:highway=footway for area of footway/sidewalk (mapped as an extra)
- highway=pedestrian area=yes for pedestrian squares
- highway=pedestrian area=yes misused for footway/sidewalk areas

Note that the last one claim may be controversial, some claim that mapping
sidewalk as highway=pedestrian area=yes in addition or instead to
highway=footway line is OK.

In some places such mapping is really popular.

I have an example (https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/365487665#map=18/52.44601/-1.81904) of a sidewalk that has been mapped as a pedestrian area. It is certainly quite wide (around 7-8 m in places) and is located within a town centre/civic area. It even has painted markings (since COVID-19 pandemic began) splitting the direction of travel for pedestrians - though this is, of course, entirely ignored by everyone walking there.

However, it is, fundamentally, just a wide paved area for pedestrians that runs parallel and adjacent to the main carriageway (road) – i.e. a sidewalk.

Do we define particularly wide sidewalks as pedestrian areas? They do seem to match most of the criteria listed on the Wiki but it doesn’t seem to quite fit for me.
Linking photos would be useful. In principle I can imagine place that can be treated
as a dual carriageway, one of them mapped as highway=pedestrian line.
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