Key:lanes

Description

The lanes tag can be used to tag how many traffic lanes a road has which are available to motorised traffic. A simple two-way road with one lane in each direction should be tagged with lanes=2. A narrow country road with only one lane to accommodate traffic (possibly with passing places) should be tagged with lanes=1. A dual 3-lane divided highway (dual carriageway) would consist of two separate ways each with lanes=3.

It will be assumed that the lanes on a two way road are allocated evenly - if this is not the case then either lanes:forward=* or lanes:backward=* can be used in addition to the lanes tag. A road with two lanes in the forward direction and one in the backward direction would be tagged as lanes=3 and lanes:forward=2.

If some lanes are only for the use of psv vehicles they should be tagged with lanes:psv=* or lanes:bus=*. Where there is a psv lane in only one direction lanes:psv:forward=* or lanes:psv:backward=* should be used. It is unclear if psv lanes be included in the total number of lanes. ie if there is a 4 lane road (two each direction) with one lane for psv in the both directions and one lane for general traffic in each direction then should the tagging be 'lanes=4, lanes:psv:forward=1, lanes:psv:backward=1' or should it be 'lanes=2, lanes:psv:forward=1, lanes:psv:backward=1'?

Many ways have not yet been tagged with the total number of lanes at all points, but only with the number of through lanes of a longer section. Therefore, data consumers can mostly treat the lanes tag as a minimum rather than an exact number. Intentionally excluding some lanes present for the whole length of the way from the count is bound to be subjective and it will make further refining ambiguous.(See tagging list discussion)

Sections of the highway for cyclists which run parallel with the main highway without a barrier between them should be tagged with cycleway=*.

Sections of highway with a pavement/sidewalk for pedestrians can be tagged using sidewalk=*. In many countries an application might decide to assume that there is a sidewalk unless the way is tagged with sidewalk=no.

Examples

Picture/Description	Tags
	A single carriageway residential road with 2 lanes which should be tagged with highway=residential and lanes=2. Optionally also sidewalk=both.
	A dual 2-lane highway represented by two way, each of which should be tagged with lanes=2 and oneway=yes also sidewalk=no. Also possibly foot=no if it is illegal for pedestrians to use the road at all.

Displaying

• ITO Map offers an overlay for lanes
  • Highway lanes

• Another possibility for viewing a network tagged by number of lanes is to use JOSM's "routes" plugin with the following layer in routes.xml (needs tweaking if you have any other values of oneway, for example):

	<layer name="lanes">
		<route color="#FF00FF">
			<pattern>
			(((lanes=10 | lanes=9 | lanes=8 | lanes=7) -oneway=yes) | ((lanes=6 | lanes=5 | lanes=4) oneway=yes))
			</pattern>
		</route>
		<route color="#FF0000">
			<pattern>
			((lanes=6 -oneway=yes) | (lanes=3 oneway=yes))
			</pattern>
		</route>
		<route color="#FF3F00">
			<pattern>
			(lanes=5 -oneway=yes)
			</pattern>
		</route>
		<route color="#FF7F00">
			<pattern>
			((lanes=4 -oneway=yes) | (lanes=2 oneway=yes))
			</pattern>
		</route>
		<route color="#FFBF00">
			<pattern>
			(lanes=3 -oneway=yes)
			</pattern>
		</route>
		<route color="#FFFF00">
			<pattern>
			(((lanes=2 | lanes=1) -oneway=yes) | (lanes=1 oneway=yes))
			</pattern>
		</route>
	</layer>

See also

• Key:lanes:psv
• Proposed features/Multiple Tracks (for railways)
• Proposed features/parking lane