Key:designation

+/- designation Description The official classification of a road or path Group Highway Element help Useful combination highway=* access=* Used combinations in World Australia/Oceania Europe (list) Asia (list) Central America (list) South America (list) Africa (list)

The tag designation=* is used to record the legal classification of a way.

Combining highway=* and access tagging provides a worldwide approximation of how one is permitted to use a path or a road in law, but it can be helpful to specify the exact local classification too.

Current usage

Rights of way in England and Wales

Main article: United Kingdom Tagging Guidelines

• designation=public_footpath
• designation=public_bridleway
• designation=restricted_byway (note: in many cases this has replaced the former descriptor 'road used as a public path' or 'RUPP')
• designation=byway_open_to_all_traffic

Also taginfo shows a significant number of uses of

• designation=permissive_footpath
• designation=permissive_bridleway

These tags should be used in combination with an appropriate highway=* tag, and appropriate access=* tags.

UK Protected Areas

In the UK there are various levels of nature reserve and protected areas of countryside. It would seem natural to use the designation tag to record the precise type of area, in addition to a more generic tag such as leisure=nature_reserve or boundary=national_park. There are currently a handful of uses of the following tags for this purpose:

• designation=national_park
• designation=area_of_outstanding_natural_beauty (England and Wales)
• designation=national_scenic_area (Scotland)
• designation=national_nature_reserve
• designation=local_nature_reserve
• designation=site_of_special_scientific_interest
• designation=access_land (England and Wales)

When not to use

There are several circumstances where using designation=* may feel natural, but where there are already other established tagging practices. Often these relate to circumstances where the designation of an object isn't an official/legal one. Examples of when not to use designation=* would include:

• Reference numbers, e.g. for roads, bridges, etc. Use ref=* instead.
• The name of something. Use name=* instead.
• The ordinary, non-legal description of something. Use description=* instead.
• The sport played on a pitch or park. Use sport=* instead.
• The religion or denomination of a place of worship, graveyard or other religious object. Use religion=* and/or denomination=* instead.

Status and use

Established. This tag is supported by Potlatch 2, and is part of the guidelines for mapping public rights of way in England and Wales. It was formally proposed and rejected back in March 2011. Despite that, the tag is in widespread use. As of October 2010, Taginfo reported over 19000 uses of this key, most of which are for public_footpath. In January 2012, usage had grown to nearly 75000 objects likely caused by Potlatch 2 including the entry of this tag in the simple interface for most object types.

Use the discussion page for further comments, and consult Taginfo's list for values commonly in use.

See also

• Proposed features/Designation
• access=designated
• United Kingdom Tagging Guidelines
• Proposed_features/Highway_administrative_and_physical_descriptions for a proposed global way to store the legal classification of roads