OSM relies verifiability. That means everything can be proven true or false on the ground. (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Verifiability). IMHO mapping logical or virtual ways contradict this basis concept. Such a way would lack of observable features and because of this it would be always somewhat arbitrary.
I assume, these ways have been mapped to overcome routing deficiencies. In such a case, I see it as <mapping for the router>. (The router did not produce a nice route over an area, therefore someone added ways to make it happen).
My preferred option is: Do not introduce any tagging without observable features. Let the dev team of the router enhance there engine to resolve its short comings (Maybe you want to push them a little).
Am 10.10.2017 um 09:32 schrieb com@heuel.org:
Thank you for all the feedback so far.
I think that tagging "logical" footpaths as being logical is _not_ "tagging for the <your use case>". If I interpret [1] correctly, this phrase refers to the mis-use of tags. The mis-used tag has no semantic meaning for the original object. Example: Using `natural=wood` to obtain a green area, although the object has nothing to do with wood.
On wiki pages like [2], paths for pedestrians always refer to a physical linear structure. I haven't found a documentation on how to deal with paths which do not refer to a physical linear structure. The information whether a footway is "real" path or a "virtual" resp. "logical" path, is a semantic property of the mapped object. I don't want to delete those paths, as it seems that too many people rely on them. But I still think there needs to be a method to identify such routes.
As mentioned in an earlier post, one way to identify "logical" or "virtual" paths is with a relation to an area tagged `highway=pedestrian`. To me, this is a bit complicated and may cause unintended side effects when editing any object in the relation.
So, as far as I can tell, there are three options:
- do nothing
- assign a special tag to a "virtual" footpath
- identify a "virtual path" by relation to an area tagged
`highway=pedestrian`.
Any thoughts on these options?
Thanks Stephan