"path is only needed when footway, cycleway or bridleway are misleading"
"There's no clear default for path, footway or every cycleway about surface. The obvious answer is that surface tags should be used."
"without any further access tags, path is neutral and open to all unmotorized means of transport (unlike footway, cycleway etc.)"
"highway=footway is meant to be the same as highway=path and foot=designated"
"But =footway and =path mean different things in different regions"
"Something that could represent a mountain path, a mountain track, a gravel bridleway, a concrete cycleway, and a asphalt walkway through a park is a useless garbage tag."
"highway=path was meant as equivalent to footway, cycleway etc and is most often used that way. It's wording is unfortunate as the association with path for many people is an unmade way."
"A path is a natural thing from people walking the same path over and over. Footway is a constructed path that is not signed as a foot-/cycleway"
"As I think, in most cases they acts like classification for pedestrian routes. highway=pedestrian is on top of that hierarchy. highway=footway right in the middle. highway=path is the lowest level of that hierarchy."
"a lot of the footway/path angst would go away if path stopped looking like a higher class of road."
"footway as paved and path as unpaved by default"
"path is rural and a result of natural wear and also cover historic trails, whereas footway is urban and has gravel/paving"
"The default for path (typically encountered [rural]) is basically unpaved and the default for footway (typically encountered in urban areas) is basically paved."
"it's fairly common that the paths worn by usage - rather than defined by statute - are indeed tagged as highway=path"
"highway=footway is undoubtly mainly a single-use way for pedestrians, whereas highway=path is a universal key for multi-use or non specific use ways, from rural, wilderness and mountain trails to all kinds of transport infrastrucure in the so called developing countries and may be used by all kinds of non 4-wheel traffic, including stock, mule, yaks and - yes - in some countries even by motorcycles/mopeds etc. "
openstreetmap/iD#2750 (comment)
By the simple fact of adding a Footway without any extra tagging, you know by definition the following (origin, aspect, use & presence) :
- it's a man made way, most often found in urban areas
- most often it is shaped as a flat surface (thinking of gravels if not) with a certain transformed material, easily recognizable and that can be easily walked or ridden
- usually for pedestrians, easy walking, wheelchairs, but if not payed attention by a official signalization can be borrowed by urban bicycles, kids bicycling or on rollers... etc.
- it's a kind of permanent structure until human intervention
For Path :
- it's the alteration of the surface of nature by wear
- surface can be of anything natural, or easily covered by natural elements (grass growing, overflowed by leaves...) and most often irregular, so not necessarily directly recognizable/visible
- it's utility can be hiking, sports (trail running, mountain biking, horse riding...), exploration or more specifically can be plotted for reference of animal presence (not sure though mappers plot for this utility, i'd not recommend since animals need space to survive too).
- existence is totally dependent of it's frequency of use whereas it's human or animal.
gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto#1858 (comment)
Footways are made for pedestrians - like cycleways are made for cyclists. Additional tags may allow additional use.
Paths are unspecified - not 'made' for any specific use - often trampled paths in forests, meadows etc. - used by anybody.
"You can't trust the OSM wiki on this. It's been edited by people with a personal point of view about "what the difference between a footway and a path is", and in a number of cases the current state of it only reflects the POV of the last editor, not the (lack of) concensus."
"As has been said many times already, there are so many different interpretations of the difference between footway and path that none of them are useful."
"What we have is a mess."