Probably not everybody since there is plenty of space in the paved parking lots right next to the buildings but some people might use it as a shortcut. Most likely the curb cuts are frequently used by maintenance vehicles like lawn mowing equipment.
I don’t know how common it is, but a web search for permeable fire lane turns up plenty of results. This gallery shows a number of examples. This company is called Invisible Structures and claims their products have been used in fire lanes “for decades”.
The idea that road_visibility=no could accurately describe these fire lanes much as trail_visilbity=no accurately describes pathless hiking routes has crossed my mind. However, I am holding out hope that the OSM community can learn from that debacle and realize that mapping a nearly invisible thing with the same primary tag as a related visible thing makes the data harder to work with.
It seems like fire lanes sometimes only really exist as a regulation stating that space around a building must be kept clear so a vehicle could drive there if necessary. This was the case at an apartment building I used to live in. Some ground floor residents wanted to install decks or privacy fences in their back yards, but were not allowed to because the space was a fire lane that had to be kept open. It had no on the ground indications of being a fire lane. It would be surprising to see this backyard space showing up as a service road on a map.
Do the ones you’ve mapped blend right into the surrounding landscape like the photos I posted, or do they have a visible surface difference that sets them apart? Permeable concrete pavers like these would be much more visible for example.
