[OSM-talk] Path vs footway vs cycleway vs...

[Roy Wallace]

On Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 12:20 PM, Anthony <osm at inbox.org> wrote:
>
>> An area of grass is - to me - not a path.
>
> Never?  Or just not generally?

I'll rephrase. The following, IMHO, are not sufficient reasons to tag
an area of grass as a path: 1) you walk on it; 2) you think it would
help routing. Analogy: 1) Just because you sit on something, that
doesn't make it a chair; 2) Just because you want others to be
recommended to sit on it, that doesn't make it a chair.

The only reason I would tag an area of grass as a path is if, when I
asked a typical stranger, "hey, is that over there a path?", they
replied yes. If I ask "is this a chair?"...you get the picture.

In that sense, of course, the photos you linked to are paths. Common sense.

>> A path, IMHO, is something
>> that exists independently of people walking or not walking on it (i.e.
>> usually you can *see* that it resembles a path).
>
> Usually, or always?

Um... so the question is, if you can't see a path, can it still be a
path? Answer: No, because otherwise your mapping is not verifiable:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Verifiability.

> If there were some other tag for me to use (say highway=grass), fine.
> But none of the other highway tags are appropriate, and the routing
> information needs to be designated somehow.  The area of grass I have
> in mind exists in a legal right of way.  It's not like I'm talking
> about cutting through someone's backyard.  It's a perfectly legitimate
> path of travel.  It should provided in walking directions.  And that
> means having some sort of highway tag.

I don't have an easy answer for your problem. I would urge caution,
though, in tagging things that aren't verifiable.

Actually, I remember trekking recently, using an OSM map, that
connected one track to another. The tracks actually *weren't
connected* in any way other than through a short stint through dense
forest. This is the problem: when you tag in order to have things
"provided in walking directions", this can lead you astray. Oh, and if
you like highway=grass, use that!