[OSM-talk] Software goes on, brain goes off...

[SomeoneElse]

Anthony wrote:
>
> Room to get off the road.  That's what I was referring to as a "shoulder".
>
Here in the third world (Derbyshire, England) we call those "hedges".  
If I avoided walking along roads without a shoulder or sidewalk of any 
sort I wouldn't get very far.

I think that we're hitting cultural differences here.  When I've been in 
the US there seems to be more of a general assumption that 
non-residential roads are for cars only and other paths (if provided, if 
you're very lucky) are for cyclists and the tiny number of pedestrians.  
In the UK the assumption has historically been that most roads are for 
everyone, with cars if necessary giving way to horses and pedestrian 
traffic.  Obviously some roads (e.g. motorways, some trunk links) are 
signed exceptions. 

It simply isn't possible to globally say that a road without a sidewalk 
is safe or unsafe (as opposed to legal) based on its attributes, unless 
someone's been there and said "yes, I've been down there and it's safe 
to walk down" - even then it'll vary by time of day / year.  Does anyone 
already use tags to indicate that?  How widely are they in use?  I can 
see lots of suggestions further down the thread but am more interested 
in what people are already using.

Cheers,
Andy