[Talk-us-massachusetts] highway=footpath vs highway=path

[Greg Troxel]

Marc Sevigny <marc.sevigny at gmail.com> writes:

> Hello.
>
> I'm recording trails (woodland paths) and have been using highway=footpath,

I think you mean highway=footway.

> since that seems the standard in my region.  The OpenStreetmap Wiki seems
> to suggest that path might be the better value.  Footpath seems better
> suited to sidewalks and other places for pedestrians where no motorized
> vehicles are allowed.  Advice needed.

This is somewhat messy, but your summary is basically 100% right about
the distinction with respect to what's arguably the majority view.


See also

  https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Massachusetts/Conservation

which should address this but doesn't (yet!).  Let's hear from others
before I change it.



Overall, most people think that

  highway=path foot=designated

is equal to

  highway=footway

in a narrow technical sense.    Both are unclear on bicycle and horse,
and need explicit tagging.

Also, there is a notion that highway=footway is an in-town
probably-paved kind of thing where you can use regular shoes and
probably not even get ticks, and highway=path is more of a woods thing.

Of course, all ways would ideally have surface and width.

Joe (paraphrasing him quite likely slightly wrong) has asked that people
use path for 'trails' and footway for 'sidewalks'.  The idea is that
somebody rendering a "trail map" needs to be able to tell things that
deserve showing even zoomed out vs things that are details useful for
pedestrian routing but not really in the overall perception of things.


Long ago, I added trails as highway=footway, and having heard Joe's
request I am now using highway=path, and adding foot=designated if there
is a basis for believing that walking usage is somehow the preferred
mode.  Many places have notions that others must yield to pedestrians,
that bikes/horses aer allowed only on some traila, or banned when wet,
etc.


Your question might be prompted by my recent editing :-)

I recently retagged all of Delaney Flood Control/WMA from highway=footway to
path/foot=designated, believing from memory and spot checking that I was
the one to enter at least most of those long ago.  I view this as minor
cleanup that doesn't change that much.

I also fixed the main access from footway back to track.  I had made it
track originally, as it is quite passable by vehicle, but someone
changed it to footway a few years ago.  I left them a changeset comment
about what I did -- but there is no way that footway is correct for the
main road over the dam.