[Talk-GB] On footpaths

[Ed Avis]

Peter Oliver <p.d.oliver at ...> writes:

>• Tagging a way "highway=footway" is equivalent to tagging it "highway=path;
>foot=..." (plus, in either case, additional tags to indicate the legal status of
>the route).

>However, both Mapnik and Osmarender display these two
>supposedly equivalent forms of footpath differently!

That's right!  And it suggests that the wiki page is wrong.  If nothing else, the
two kinds of tagging render differently, so they are not exactly equivalent.

The general practice in this country is to use footway for paved paths in cities
and path for muddier countryside ones (or, perhaps, through city parks).
Likewise a narrow road can be tagged as highway=service or highway=track
depending on how well it's surfaced.  If you want to add additional surface tags,
go ahead, but the footway/path distinction should be sufficient.

Perhaps in other countries the convention more closely matches the wiki docs.

-- 
Ed Avis <eda at waniasset.com>