[Talk-is] Footpath and cycleways...

[Christoph Hess]

Hi,

first time I write on this mailing list. I did some mapping and editing 
especially around háaleitis.

I found in the mailing list in november archive something about this 
problems with footpaths etc. It was the same at háaleitisbraut. There 
were some cycleways which were indeed just pathwalks beside the street. 
I think there are a lot of left overs in this manner...

I was looking around some other bigger cities in Germany (where i lived 
and areas i know with different settings like pathways, pavewalks etc. 
and they are not so strange and complicated even if there are a lot of 
different kinds on one road (like two lanes, in the middle two tram 
railways, and sidewalk separated into foot and bicycle lane).

And i found some information in the OSM wiki how to use cycleways, 
footways and paths. We should use paths whereever possible and add 
bicycle or foot set on yes. Cycleways can be used when they are 
explicitly marked as a cycleway (i think there are really few in 
reykjavík imho even this paths besides miklabraut are not really marked 
as explicit cycleways - so we should use the path tag and 
foot+bicycle=yes).
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/Path/Examples

I think we don't need to include every way separate if it is separated 
from the street by a small grass lane. This would be completely 
confusing. There are discussions about using a tag for streets with the 
possibility to add tags for pavewalks right/left/both and bicycle and 
foot yes/no - maybe this will be a good solution: in the future...
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Proposed_features/Sidewalk

Maybe we can discuss this further in the mailing list. I think it is 
good to use the path tag a lot because it is more flexible and more 
equal - because: when is it a cycleway and foot is allowed or when is it 
a footway and bicycles are allowed - this will be never ending 
discussions on some paths... so just use the neutral path and add 
bicycle and foot. Easy to tag and easy to render.

So what do you think about it?

Bless
    Christoph