[OSM-talk] Proliferation of path vs. footway

[Tom Chance]

On Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:13:39 +0200, Martin Simon wrote:
> "Path" was and is intended to provide an alternative tagging scheme
> for things tagged with footway/bridleway/cycleway before that is not
> biased mode-of-transport-wise.
> 
> With path, you can distinguish between e.g. officially designated
> "footways" and those that have no designation at all.
> Furthermore, it is possible to tag combined cycle/foot/whateverways
> without discriminating one of the modes of transport. (like with
> "highway=cycleway, foot=yes" before)

If this is the proper conclusion of the voting then the tag is a complete,
hopeless mess!

Since the vote very clearly opposed deprecating footway, cycleway, and
bridleway we must now have two parallel tagging schemas that are marking
exactly the same features with more or less the same information in a
different way.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Approved_features/Path

Germans use highway=path for paths of any description fields and forests,
Italians for paths in the countryside, English-speaking mappers either for
miscellaneous little footpaths or as a wholesale replacement of
footway/cycleway/bridleway, and in a few places people seem to just be
making random distinctions (like footpaths in cemeteries).

The result is a totally unclear fudge which leaves us either with
needlessly complicated maps, or stylesheets with a long string of "this or
that or that or that" definitions to describe near-identical features that
should be rendered in the same way.

It just makes me despair about the anarchic approach we have towards
tagging. It's almost as bad as the utterly pointless (and still unresolved)
distinctions around wood/forest. It's absolutely fine to create a new tag
for a new feature, do what you want! But it's crazy that we let random
unaccountable groups of wiki users change the rules for basic features like
footpaths without having any sufficient processes and tools to make sure
this then gets full agreement, clear documentation and proper enforcement.

Regards,
Tom