[OSM-talk] Proliferation of path vs. footway

[Tom Chance]

Hi there,

I'm 100% unclear about the distinction between highway=path and
highway=footway.

Paths and footways, which seem to be used for the same sorts of ways by
different mappers, both show up differently on the main map. The Mapnik and
Tiles at Home stylesheets have quite enough different way styles already,
adding more just makes it even harder for your average user to interpret.
So I think it’s important that we define the difference more clearly and
apply it more consistently.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:highway%3Dpath

The wiki page above, and the voting page for the proposal, suggest that
highway=path should be used where you don’t really think footway,
cycleway, bridleway, track and others are suitable. But then it suggests
using highway=path with a subset of tags in place of highway=bridleway,
which contradicts the first explanation.

I can only think of a few circumstances where I wouldn’t just opt for
footway – little unofficial paths here and there in parks, across small
bits of grass in towns and in the countryside. But I’ve seen path crop up
in lots of situations where the other highway tags would be good enough.

Which is it to be?

Regards,
Tom