The area I’m currently mapping has some paths like these:
I’d go with how the locals call them!
If it’s an alley, use highway=alley etc.
Are they named? Who / what uses them - pedestrians only / cars / bicycles / motorbikes etc?
Hi, yes most of these are named. Normally they are only wide enough for people and bicycles. I’m not sure about motorbikes… In theory they can probably use it, but most people won’t do that since they know that there are residential houses right next to it and they don’t want to make loads of noise.
You can also use path preferably specifying the surface and preferably the width.
Just out of curiosity: Do you mean highway=service + service=alley or really highway=alley?
The ladder has only 5 uses worldwide and no wiki documentation. Just wondering because I’ve never seen this kind of tagging before 
I would suggest highway=pedestrian, which is meant for pedestrian streets (emphasis on the “street”, i.e. a way that’s delimited on its sides by buildings). Both highway=footway or highway=path are technically applicable, but they are more generic and can refer to any way that people can walk on, regardless of what’s around it.
This can certainly vary greatly from region to region, but I don’t see a pedestrian (zone) here. Even when I look at the example pictures in the wiki, I imagine a pedestrian zone to be a large, wide area, with shops on both sides, no vehicle traffic, cyclists have to push their bikes, there are avenue trees…
To be more specific: are there any access restrictions for vehicles on these streets?
As far as I can see, the location is in China, correct?
If so, I can imagine that kei cars can drive through there easily and also many scooters / motorcycles. If the main purpose of these streets is the delivery or access to the residential buildings there, I stick to my highway=service suggestion.
Fair point. While I don’t necessarily assume highway=pedestrian to be wider than regular streets (example), or even wide at all (example), I do agree that there’s an expectation of a certain level of curation of that space to be walkable that is missing in this picture.
In this case, I agree that highway=service + service=alley is appropriate, though I’d consider setting also motor_vehicle to no, destination or discouraged, to match the usage that @SunnyMonster described.
These sorts of urban narrow ways have seen a fair bit of discussion in recent years. They seem to occupy a bit of a grey area between street and path that we do not have a dedicated highway=* tag for. Some previous discussions:
Sorry, this
If it a named alley street I would go with the tagging described here. I cowrote the section about alley streets with some Baltimore locals where we have quite a few named streets that are more like alleys.
Our agreement (in the Baltimore metro) is that that the lack of sidewalks and curb parking is usually the point of delineation between residential and service tagging. For very narrow alleys unfit for a car and maybe not even a bike, I’d go with footway.
As @ezekielf pointed out, this topic has been widely discussed, but there is no global consensus. The best approach is to check if a local consensus is documented in the country wiki; if not, consult other mappers in your area to determine the most appropriate tagging method.
highway=footway + bicycle=yeshighway=path + motorcycle=yeshighway=service + service=alley + motorcar=nohighway=residential + motorcar=nohighway=service + service=alleyhighway=residential + lanes=1width=* (in meters) – to specify the estimated widthlanes=1 – to indicate a single-lane road that allows two-way traffic (supported by routers).surface=* – to distinguish from unpaved trails.motorcycle=yes/no, bicycle=yes/no, motorcar=no, motor_vehicle=yes/no – to ensure correct routing.Legal vs. Physical Restrictions: Using access tags like motorcar=no on unsigned/unrestricted narrow roads can be contentious. These roads may not have legal restrictions, only physical ones, and some small vehicles might still navigate them. While width=* is the best approach, few routers support it.
service=alley for Narrow Residential Roads: Some argue that alleyways serve a different function than narrow residential streets, making highway=service + service=alley a poor fit.
highway=path for Narrow Urban Ways: The tag is primarily used for outdoor trails, and many renderers do not differentiate between urban paths and hiking trails, leading to mapping inconsistencies.
Inconsistent Meaning of “Alley” Worldwide: The term “alley” has different meanings across regions, ranging from a backstreet accessible to vehicles to a very narrow footpath. Wikipedia provides an overview of these variations.