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

Richard Mann richard.mann.westoxford at googlemail.com
Wed Apr 15 13:24:40 BST 2009


On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 6:48 PM, Richard Fairhurst <richard at systemed.net>wrote:

> Tagwatch suggests that surface=paved, unpaved, gravel, cobblestone, ground
> and grass
> are the most common values (those with over 10k uses).
> cheers
> Richard
>
>
(This was in response to my assertion that surface was unrenderable)

The surface key is specified for about 8% of highway=footway (in Europe),
with paved/unpaved roughly even. The surface key is specified for about 20%
of highway=path, mostly unpaved. Key:surface works as a supplementary key
for roads (because paved can be assumed to be the default), but doesn't work
very well for non-motor highways, where the surface could reasonably be
quite a range of things (and where "unpaved" could cover quite a range of
smoothnesses).

For surface to be renderable, there either needs to be a clear default
assumption for each highway tag value, or a clear understanding that surface
always needs to be added for those tag values where it's unclear (don't hold
your breath on that last one). It's simpler to associate "path" with
non-made-up and "footway" with "made-up", and this seems to largely match
the majority of usage of "path" so far.

Time to write this into the "designation" proposal.

Richard (West Oxford)
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