[Talk-gb-westmidlands] Fwd: gated alleys aren't roads

[Ed Loach]

Brian quoted Adrian:

> Can you make sure that back alleys are shown as paths and not as
roads, 
> especially where they are behind locked gates and the public has
no access? 

Checking the wiki, highway=service, service=alley *is* a road:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:service%3Dalley

I tend to think of an alley as the small footpath between two sets
of fences, so the OSM alley tag isn't appropriate; I tend to use
footway. I have mapped some ways recently that met the alley wiki
page description, but used driveway, so will probably now retag when
I get a moment now I've reread the wiki descriptions.

I think after that the appropriate access tags should be used to say
whether there is access or not.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:access

I've not visited the area Adrian mentions to know whether those
alleys are small roads or footpaths.

Ed