The problem with "path" is that it doesn't convey any meaning. The original idea behind "footway" was that it was a way that you traversed on foot. Over the years others have wanted to segregate this blanket idea into different fractions to denote the diffident types of footway. I can name a few examples that apply in some locations but not others (and I'm sure I've not been exhaustive in the list below)
A designated alignment only for walkers (in the UK we have various designations, some are seen elsewhere as well) A line on the ground that is used (mostly) buy those on foot though it might be a sheep or goat too! It may move a bit season to season. The part of a highway that is used for walking (and sometimes cycling) - what is generally called a sidewalk in the US and a pavement in the UK. A pedestrian way that links buildings or other facilities. Generally paved and may vary in width substantially So, when we talk about tagging the above we could stick with the quick and easy method and call them all footway (if that they are for foot traffic) or we could be smarter and change the main tag, or we could be even smarter still and keep the blanket tag as originally intended and add other tags to properly describe our feature like we do with highways, railways and almost every other root way we have. Cheers Andy From: Adam Hoyle [mailto:adam.li...@dotankstudios.com] Sent: 21 August 2012 15:47 To: Andy Allan Cc: talk-gb@openstreetmap.org Subject: Re: [Talk-GB] Footway to Sidewalk? On 21 Aug 2012, at 14:47, Andy Allan wrote: On 21 August 2012 13:27, SomeoneElse <li...@mail.atownsend.org.uk> wrote: Although I'd usually oppose such Americanisms, in this case "sidewalk" is unambiguous in a way that "footway" (or "pavement") isn't, and on the forum thread (and several years ago on a mailing list, when this was previously discussed) I said that I wouldn't object to someone changing a "footway=left" that I had mapped to "sidewalk=left". Not everyone agreed with me, though... I'm entirely supportive of using "sidewalk" when discussing pavements in the context of OSM. "footway" is even more confusing to OSMers than even "pavement" would be! For years now I've been using the term "sidewalk", and explaining why that's the best word for it, whenever I've discussed the topic. I agree - from the wiki http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:highway%3Dfootway <http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:highway=footway> a footway seems unambiguously to be what americans call a sidewalk. It's totally confused me, so in the bit of UK countryside I edit I have added tons of ways with highway=footway tags through woods, fields etc, when in fact I am pretty sure they should really be highway=path tags. I realised this a little while ago, so this thread is timely. Do please correct me if I'm still confused as I'm slowly going through the process of re-tagging them from footway to path. However, don't let that mean that I support a poorly documented and poorly executed bulk edit. likewise Adam
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