Lanes

This article describes how to tag individual lanes of a road. To tag only the number of traffic lanes, see the key lanes=*.

Feature page: Lanes

Description

To tag individual lanes of a road together with their distinctive properties.

Tags

turn:lanes=*, destination:lanes=*, access:lanes=*, ...

Contents 1 Description 2 Examples 2.1 Different maxspeed per lane (with/without default values) 2.2 Two driving directions 2.3 Minimum speed 2.4 Motorway 3 See also

Description

To tag individual lanes of a road together with their distinctive properties the key-extension :lanes can be used.

Lane-specific information can be expressed on a way by suffixing the key with :lanes. This suffix is applicable to any existing <key>=<value> tag pair. In such case, the value of that key then contains the values for each lane separated by a | (vertical bar) in left-to-right order as viewed in the respective driving direction of those lanes. If the value of a specific lane is left blank, the (possibly assumed/implicit) value of the main key without :lanes-suffix applies (the so called default value).

In the common case of two driving directions either :forward or :backward is added to the end of the key; i.e., <key>:lanes:forward describes the properties of the lanes in the same direction as the osm-way, whereas <key>:lanes:backward described the properties of the lanes in the opposite direction of the osm-way.

Examples

In principle every tag used to describe properties of a road can be extended by the :lanes suffix when its value depends on the lane. Following list gives an overview of potentially useful combinations and a short description when they might be needed:

Road property	Lane specific key	Description
access=*	hgv:lanes, bus:lanes...	Useful if access depends on the lane: For example lanes can be restricted to buses (bus:lanes) or forbidden for heavy good vehicles (hgv:lanes).
maxspeed=*	maxspeed:lanes	Can be used for roads where the maximum allowed speed depends on the lane. See example below.
turn=*	turn:lanes	Allows description of designated turn lanes or which lanes will merge in the direction of travel. See detailed examples below.
minspeed=*	minspeed:lanes	Useful for roads where some lanes require a minimum speed or where lanes have different minimum speed.
surface=*	surface:lanes	Lane dependent surfaces, for example if there is cobblestone on the outer lane
destination=*	destination:lanes	While the road specific key describes the direction of the highway by using the name of the city the highway is heading to, the destination:lanes allows tagging of cities when sign-posted for individual lanes. See destination=* for examples.
width=*, maxwidth=*	width:lanes, maxwidth:lanes	Where deemed necessary, the width of individual lanes can be tagged. According to the existing tagging practice maxwidth:lanes would describe a legal width restriction, width:lanes the actual width of a lane.

Different maxspeed per lane (with/without default values)

A simple lane dependent maxspeed example with road sign (one-way street and a general speed limit of 100 assumed):

Without the use of default values: lanes=3 oneway=yes maxspeed:lanes=100|100|80

Using default values: lanes=3 oneway=yes maxspeed=100 maxspeed:lanes=||80

Considering backward compatibility it might be preferred to tag this using default values.

Two driving directions

In the common case of two driving directions either :forward or :backward is added to the end of the key.

 lanes=6
 lanes:forward=3
 hgv:lanes:forward=no|yes|yes
 hgv:lanes:backward=no|yes|yes

This is a road with three lanes in each direction and heavy good vehicles are prohibited on the leftmost lane in each direction.

Please note that the lanes are viewed in the respective driving direction; i.e., hgv:lanes:forward describes the lanes in the same direction as the osm-way and the first lane-value refers to the leftmost lane in this direction, whereas hgv:lanes:backward describes the lanes in the opposite direction of the osm-way and the first lane-value refers to the leftmost lane in that direction.

Minimum speed

Road with a sign-posted minimum speed, which applies to one lane only. Can be tagged as:

lanes=3 lanes:forward=2 minspeed:lanes:forward=50|

Please note the final | character in the value of minspeed:lanes:forward: Because the right-most lane has no minimum speed, no value should be tagged after the lane separator.

Motorway

The following example demonstrates tagging of a motorway.

1.   lanes=3
     destination:lanes=A|A;B|B     *
   

2.   lanes=3
     turn:lanes=slight_left|slight_left;slight_right|slight_right     *
   

3.   lanes=3
     turn:lanes=slight_left|slight_left;slight_right|slight_right     *
     destination:lanes=A|A;B|B     *
   

4.   lanes=4
     turn:lanes=slight_left|slight_left|slight_right|slight_right
     destination:lanes=A|A|B|B
   

5.   lanes=4
   

6. Up

     lanes=2
   

   Down

     lanes=2
     turn:lanes=none|merge_to_left
   

7. Up

     lanes=3
   

   Down

     lanes=1
   

* These tags show how to add more than one value to a single lane, by separating those values with a ; (semi-colon).

See also

• lanes=* for tagging the number of traffic lanes
• turn=* for turn lanes
• destination=* for describing the direction of the highway
• The proposal for the :lanes extension