[Talk-GB] Possibly using "highway=path" for country footpaths

[Richard Mann]

To clarify, I was suggesting using highway=path for unmade or roughly-made
footpaths, and highway=footway for made-up footpaths. Muddy paths would be
highway=path whether they are in the countryside or between houses.

There is a strong correlation between whether a path is made up and it's
urban/rural location, but it is the degree of making up that I was
suggesting should be used as the criteria for the highway key.

The surface key is unusable for practical rendering - it's too detailed.
Smoothness ditto. Tracktype barely. I could imagine a new (fourth?!) key for
describing whether the path was made-up or not, but incorporating the basic
distinction (made-up or not) into the highway key seems to match existing
tagging better. This would lead to path/bridleway*/track for unmade and
footway/cycleway/service/unclassified/etc for made-up. (* bridleway is only
really used in the UK).

The question of whether a path is designated is inherently better defined
(though jurisdiction-dependent), and so probably fits well into a separate
key (designation) for those situations/jurisdictions where it doesn't align
completely with highway, and keeps such local idiosyncracies in a safe
place.

This may not be the ideal tagging scheme, but it fits reasonably with what
has been done already (not just in the UK), is renderable, and is reasonably
clear for new taggers (unlike the current state of the wiki).

Richard (West Oxford)

On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 11:39 AM, Al Girling <acgirling at gcguk.demon.co.uk>wrote:

> On Fri, Apr 03, 2009 at 12:42:46PM BST, Richard Mann wrote:
> >
> > *** I would like feedback/discussion on this particular point - whether
> > urban made-up and rural unmade footpaths should be tagged distinctively
> ***
>
> I see no reason for paths to be tagged differently just because they are
> in an urban or rural setting, but then I find highway=footway intensely
> irritating!  Why footway exists but a tag for public footpaths doesn't
> is frankly beyond me.
>
> As far as I'm concerned paths should be tagged highway=path with
> designations for public footpaths/bridleways/cyclepaths and other uses
> for paths used added where appropriate.  Surface tags could be included
> for those so inclined.
>
> I'd also like to see a green dotted line to indicate a public footpath
> to compliment the green line of dashes used for bridleways.
>
> Al
>
> --
> Alistair Girling
>
> Home-page:                      <http://al.sdf-eu.org>
>
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