This is the query that I send to OSM:

Entirely up to you. I was just surprised to see them when the project is described as a visualization of roads.

Yes i found the same when i was looking around my area. If not filtering out footpaths, changing them to be a different type of line to distinguish roads from footpaths such as ------- for paths maybe?

Having options to filter out various types of roads might also enable lean SVG export :)

Please, get rid of footpaths, or change them to something else. Really!

Yeah I'm seeing footpaths in parks in San Francisco as well, which makes the city appear to be more completely covered in roads than it actually is.

yep

it would be awesome if some features would have a slightly different thickness (boulevards/highways) – I imagine this would make cities even more recognisable

You may wish to add an option a user would specify to select a class of highway=* values as described in OSM wiki

see also: #20
I would think that if you filter out all non car roads/ways it could lead to empty spaces i.e. in huge parks.

middle ground could be to dim/de-emphasize paths / smaller roads (by size or color)

Hey @anvaka!
I would like to work on adding this path filtering feature as it is really essential to separate highway roads and footpaths or other paths from each other.
Can you please help me with how to start contributing to this?
Thanks!!

Can't we make a checkbox-list component for the options, and make it selectable for the users? Is there sb working on this? I think I will pick this up if I will have some free time.