Private Road, Public Footpath

General talk
1

Beginner Question, hope its OK here.

If I have a private road which is designated as a Public Footpath should it be shown as

  1. Allowed Access
    All - Private
    Motor - Private
    Foot - Yes

or 2) Allowed Access
All - Yes
Motor - Private
Foot - Yes

2

It may not matter but I would tag it:

access=private
foot=yes

or

access=private
foot=designated

As that would set the default access to private for things I don’t know about, like bicycles, horses, etc. to private which seems more likely reality on the ground.

I suspect that the default access varies quite a bit around the world. It could be that where you are other forms of non-motorized traffic is likely to be allowed, so let your local laws and customs guide you.

3

The really important thing is :

  • designation=public_footpath (which implies foot=yes)

Using an access=private tag is probably not strictly accurate as meter readers, the post(wo)man, delivery drivers, visitors etc can all probably use it. The alternative is access=destination which is recognised by many data consumers. access=private is best reserved for places behind gates. The Park Estate in Nottingham happens to be a large scale example of this (a private residential estate, with a public footpath across it), see https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/12360834#map=17/52.94874/-1.16253.