Walking Trails
Waze lists Walking Trail as a non-drivable road. But it treats it as a drivable road, similar to a parking lot road. Waze will tell wazers to drive on walking trails. In the app, a walking trail looks different from a parking lot road. Named walking trails can have house numbers. Even if they are disconnected from all other drivable roads, they can still affect routing along drivable roads. In special cases, walking trails are used to direct wazers to the correct stop point for a location not directly reachable by road.

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Limitations
* The name "Walking Trail" is misleading. It is NOT good to map all pedestrian walkways, hiking trails, and bicycle paths. A Walking trail near destinations can distort routing to those destinations even if the Walking Trail is disconnected from the road network.

* Mapping walking and biking trails might encourage wazers to waze while walking, running, or biking on these trails and on drivable roads. This can make roads seem slower than they actually are. As of March 2015 the waze map should discourage pedestrians and cyclists from using Waze. The waze map should not look useful to pedestrians and cyclists.

Applications

In some rare cases, walking trails can be used to correct Waze routing. Examples include
* A music stage in a large park, close to road "A", but only accessible from road "B". Use a walking trail from road "B" to the music stage
* A train station with parking on both sides of the tracks, where waze only routes to one of the parking lots. Add walking trails from both parking lots.
* Homes on non-drivable footpaths. Use a named Walking trail.
In each case, connect it to the drivable road. Lock to a high level to discourage disconnection or deletion.

Sometimes, a Walking Trail is a searchable destination. Usually though, a point place marker at each important trailhead will be more useful to wazers.

Finally, when very obvious trails cross roads -- such as in the case of converted railroad right-of-ways ("Rails to Trails") -- mapping a Walking Trail at the crossing may help orient drivers. But be careful. Even a walking trail disconnected from all roads can cause routing problems. In some cases, it may be better to use the Pedestrian Boardwalk road type.

Naming

If destinations are addressed via a Walking Trail, it is essential that the Walking Trail be named accordingly so that routing to the addresses will work. For other routing situations, Walking Trails should be named to alert drivers that they must leave their car. For example, a Walking Trail connecting the two sides of a train station may be named "Station Access Path".

Discouraged uses
It is best not to map walkways unless they support driving Wazers in reaching their destinations. When they are not needed, they should be removed to protect routing and to keep the map simple.

As of March 2015, long bike paths or walkways should not be mapped in dense urban areas. This is most important when they parallel drivable roads or run near Waze or Google destination points or areas. This is because Walking Trails distort Waze routing to any destination they run near.

In less-dense areas, long Walking Trails might be less harmful, as long as they are not connected to the drivable roads. On the other hand, some new editors will see these as examples and add more walking trails.

Short walkways in small parks are uneeded if they serve no destinations and are not useful landmarks, and should be removed from the map.

Substituting Pedestrian Boardwalks

As of March 2015, the Pedestrian Boardwalk might not cause routing problems. If it is useful for orienting wazers while driving, a pedestrian boardwalk may be used to show trails. If it is not useful for helping Wazers find their way, it should be removed. The map should not create the impression that waze is for use when walking, running, or cycling.