This whole thread however raises some nagging question in my mind:
“Why does it matter?”
I mean, why does it matter for data consumer (and not why stroking the ego of the mapper always matter to the said mapper, which is rather clear)?
In other words, how would data consumer change their behaviour depending whether something is tagged:
- just as
highway=footwayway going parallel to thehighway=primary(i.e. if that is “just” a footway or footpath or whatever you want to call it, but not a sidewalk)
as opposed it if was tagged as:
highway=footway+footway=sidewalkway going parallel to the samehighway=primary(i.e. if it is “an actual sidewalk” or whatever you want to call it)
In other words, if someone really stole that sign from the picture at the bottom of that post, how would pedestrians (or cyclists, or motorist etc) behave differently?
Are there different rules? Can those rules be expressed with different OSM tags if one didn’t want to read to 168+ posts of this thread (e.g. just random example to show what I mean – maybe with sign it is bicycle=yes, but without it is bicycle=no)?
Additionally, what would be the practical difference to data consumer between second example above ( highway=footway + footway=sidewalk parallel to highway=primary), and the situation when there was only highway=primary with extra tag sidewalk:left=yes (but without any other way tagged parallel to it)?
Please add your jurisdiction when providing comments, thanks!