Key:access

+/- access Description For describing the legal accessibility of a element. Group Restrictions Element help Useful combination highway=* Implies Used combinations in World Australia/Oceania Europe (list) Asia (list) Central America (list) South America (list) Africa (list)

Description

Access values are used to describe the legal access for highway=*s and other facilities including building=entrances. The values can be used with the access tag or with tags associated with particular forms of transport. For example access=delivery on a service road tagged with highway=service would imply that all transport modes can use the entrance for delivery only. A building entrance available for pedestrian customers only would be tagged building=entrance and foot=customer. In addition to transport mode restriction, there may be restrictions relating to height, weight, restrictions may vary by time and day and restrictions may be directional.

Values

value	Description
agricultural	Only for agricultural traffic
customer	Only for customers of the element. Recent addition with disputed applicability. Discuss / some mappers are using destination instead
delivery	Only when delivering to the element.
designated	A preferred or designated route for a specific vehicle type or types. Not compulsory but often marked by a traffic sign
destination	Only when traveling to this element, e.g. customer parking lots.
forestry	Only for forestry traffic
no	No access for the general public. Consider using another tag indicating who can use the element
official	The way is dedicated to a specific mode of travel by law. Usually marked by traffic signs and exclusive. In Germany use is also compulsory. clarification needed
permissive	Open to general traffic until such time as the owner revokes the permission which they are legally allowed to do at any time in the future.
private	Only with permission of the owner on an individual basis
unknown	No information provided on access. This is the default value for most features with a general assumption that access is allowed for all purposes
yes	The public has an official, legally-enshrined right of access, i.e. it's a right of way

Access time restrictions

Restrictions can be limited to a particular time or day or particular days:

• date_on=YYYY-MM-DD Sets the start date for an access closure
• date_off=YYYY-MM-DD Sets the end date for an access closure
• day_on=monday/tuesday/wednesday/… Closure each week starts at the beginning of this day
• day_off=monday/tuesday/wednesday/… Closure each week ends at the end of this day
• hour_on=HH:MM:SS Closure starts at this time
• hour_off=HH:MM:SS Closure ends at this time

A more flexible solution for time-dependent tagging is using access:<opening_hours value>=* as proposed by Extended conditions for access tags.

Size and statutory restrictions

A number of statutary restrictions based on height, width, weight etc can also be defined. A assumed units are the appropriate SI unit and should be specified without any suffix. For lengths use metres, for weights use metric tons and for times use hours. Decimal numbers should include a decimal point. Exceptions include speeds which should be in mph in places where speed limits are defined in these units and times which can include a suffix of 'days' if appropriate.

• maxweight=*
• maxaxleload=*
• maxheight=* height restriction
• maxheight:physical=* physical height restriction
• maxwidth=* (Also note width=* for the physical width of the entire road.)
• maxlength=*
• maxdraught=*
• maxspeed=* (km/h by default, mph if specified)
• minspeed=*
• maxstay=* (maximum parking time)

Routing restrictions

One-way restrictions

Ways may have different access restrictions for each direction. The most simple case is a way designated as a oneway road:

• oneway=yes driving is only allowed in the direction of the way
• oneway=-1 driving is only allowed against the direction of the way
• oneway=no default, access is allowed in both directions (this key/value combination does not normally need to be added to ways, unless another tag such as highway=motorway_link implies oneway=yes)

For more complex direction dependent restrictions, the postfixes :backward and :forward can be used on the keys, for example:

• bicycle:backward=no (when a road has a oneway cycleway next to it that must be used, and a cyclelane in the other direction)
• bicycle:backward=yes (when cyclists are allowed to travel in both directions on a oneway street (but no lane is present))

Also in use when cyclists are allowed to travel in the opposite direction

• cycleway=opposite
• cycleway=opposite_lane (only if a separate lane exists)
• cycleway=opposite_track (only if a separate track exists)
• bicycle:oneway=no
• oneway:bicycle=no (consistent with tags based on conditions)

The oneway tag can be translated (for routing purposes) to this generic system as follows (oneway restrictions presumably do not apply to pedestrians):

• oneway=yes to vehicle:backward=no
• oneway=-1 to vehicle:forward=no

Transport mode restrictions

Use the access=* key to describe a general access restriction that applies to all transport modes.

Where different restrictions apply to different modes of transport then mode specific tags can be used. These modal tags each have a place in a hierarchy in which keys become narrower in scope as they branch out from the root.

For example:

• access=yes,foot=no means that all transport modes except pedestrians can use the element
• access=forestry,foot=permissive implies that forestry vehicles can use the route legally and that pedestrians can use it by currently but that permission may later be withdrawn.
• See examples section for more examples.

Land-based transportation

This hierarchy is different in each country. So it's possible that your country has vehicle classes which aren't in this list, doesn't have some which are, and some vehicle classes may even have a different definition from the one listed below:

• access=* (category: any land-based transportation mode)
  • Moving without a vehicle
    • foot=* (pedestrians)
    • ski=*
      • ski:nordic=* (cross-county skiing)
      • ski:alpine=* (downhill skiing)
      • ski:telemark=* (telemark (free-heel) skiing)
    • inline_skates=*
    • ice_skates=*
  • horse=* (horse riders)
  • vehicle=* (category: any vehicle)
    • Non-motorized vehicle
      • Single-tracked
        • bicycle=* (cyclists)
      • Double-tracked
        • carriage=* (horse(s) + carriage)
        • trailer=* (needs to be towed by another vehicle which has its own restrictions)
          • caravan=* (a travel trailer, also known as caravan)
    • motor_vehicle=* (category: any motorized vehicle)
      • Single-tracked
        • motorcycle=* (a two-wheeled motor vehicle, allowed to drive on motorways)
        • moped=* (motorized bicycles with a speed restriction; e.g., at most a 50 cc engine or max. speed of about 45 km/h)
        • mofa=* ("low performance moped", usually with a maximum design speed of 25 km/h)
      • Double-tracked (category: motor vehicles with more than 2 wheels/more than 1 track)
        • motorcar=* automobiles/cars
          • motorhome=* (a motorhome)
        • psv=* (public service vehicle)
          • bus=* (a bus acting as a public service vehicle)
          • taxi=* (taxi)
        • tourist_bus=* describes a bus that is not acting as a public transport bus service
        • goods=* (light commercial vehicles; e.g., goods vehicles with a maximum allowed mass of up to 3.5 tonnes)
        • hgv=* (heavy goods vehicle; e.g., goods vehicles with a maximum allowed mass over 3.5 tonnes)
        • agricultural=* (agricultural motor vehicles (e.g., tractors) that have additional restrictions (e.g., a 25 km/h speed limit))
        • ATV (Restricted to or permissive for vehicles 50 in (1.27 m) or less in width) still in proposal stage. You may want to use maxwidth=1.27 instead.
        • snowmobile=*
      • By use
        • hov=* (high-occupancy vehicle/carpool, at least one passenger (varies by location))
        • forestry=* Use *=forestry instead.
        • emergency=* (category: emergency motor vehicles; e.g., ambulance, fire truck, police car)
        • hazmat=* (motor vehicles carrying hazardous materials)
        • blue_badge_holder=* disabled=*(holders of blue badge (UK) or other such disabled persons' permit. Used on traffic signs to exempt said group from access restrictions; not just regarding parking)

Not in the list: hybrid cars, electric cars, 4wd_only, (should that be "hgv_caravan" or "road_train"?).

Water-based transportation

• access=* (category: any water-based transportation mode)
  • boat=* (covers small boats and pleasure crafts, including yachts)
    • motorboat=* (boats and yachts using motor, on also for sailing boats using the motor)
    • sailboat=* (boats and yachts using sails, on doing way with sail, not using the motor (according to the definition of the Colreg))
    • canoe=* (boats without sail or motor, such as small dingies, canoes, kayaks, etc.)
  • fishing_vessel=* (covers fishing vessels of any size)
  • ship=* (covers commercial vessels of any size and any trade)
    • passenger=* (ships carrying passengers, either in route (ferries, etc.) or as cruise)
    • cargo=* (any type of cargo ship)
      • bulk=* (covers all dry bulk cargo)
      • tanker=* (covers all wet bulk cargo, including compressed gas)
        • tanker:gas=* (compressed or liquefied gas)
        • tanker:oil=* (crude oil and oil products
        • tanker:chemical=* (all other products in tanks)
        • tanker:singlehull=* (special coverage for single hull as most of Europe and US have more restrictive rules for single hull tankers than for double hull. The general tag is for double hull if this tag is in use.)
      • container=* (collective tag for general cargo)
      • imdg=* (dangerous cargo covered by the IMDG code (International Marine Dangerous Goods))
    • ISPS=* or isps=* (International Ship and Port Facility Security Regulation.)

As suggested, see discussion.

Rail-based transportation

• access=* (category: any rail-based transportation mode)
  • train=* (trains)

Examples

• bicycle=yes The public has a right of way when traveling on a bicycle.
• horse=designated The route is designated for use by equestrians.
• motorcycle=unknown It is unclear whether motorcycles can use this section.
• motorcar=private The owner must give access to cars on an individual basis. Access by car is private, eg on a private road.
• goods=no General goods vehicle traffic is not allowed.
• hgv=no Heavy goods vehicle traffic is not allowed.
• boat=no Waterway is not available for boat traffic.
• oneway=yes + psv=opposite_lane The street is one way for cars but there is one opposite lane for buses and taxis.
• maxweight=7 The weight limit is 7 tonnes
• maxaxleload=3.5 The restricted weight limit per axle in tonnes, eg 3.5 t
• maxheight=2.5 The maxmimum vehicle height is 2.5 meters
• maxdraught=1 The maximum boat draught is 1 meter
• maxspeed=110 The maximum speed limit is 110 km/h
• maxspeed=55 mph The maximum speed limit is 55 mph
• maxstay=14 days The maximum stay permitted; units in the tag as either hour/hours or day/days.

A one-way street with a cycle lane in the opposite direction:

• highway=unclassified
• oneway=yes
• cycleway=opposite_lane

See also

• Proposal Access restrictions 1.5: Refinement and structured refactoring of the current access tags and modifiers
• Access-Restrictions
• access=designated - different explicit administrative designations (like footway, cycleway, bridleway)
• highway=cycleway
• highway=footway
• highway=bridleway
• Approved features/More access keys and values
• male=*, female=*, unisex=*