Proposal:Guidepost shape

Key:guidepost_shape
Proposal status:	Draft (under way)
Proposed by:	Henry572
Tagging:	guidepost_shape=fingers, guidepost_shape=board Data item
Applies to:
Definition:	Describes the type of guidepost design
Statistics:
Draft started:	2024-01-18

Proposal

Approve the new key guidepost_shape=* and its possible values.

Rationale

There are different types of guideposts. Bicycle guideposts in Germany are built either with "fingers" mounted on one pole pointing in different directions or as "boards" visible from one direction and using drawn arrows to guide the cyclist. In the Netherlands, many hiking guideposts seem to be designed as a "paddenstoel".

The finger guideposts (and probably paddenstoelen) are usually positioned at a junction where people can slow down to read the different destinations. There is usually only one such guidepost per junction.

The board guideposts are located in front of a junction. They are designed to be read from a bike without slowing down, similar to motorway signs. There should be one such guidepost for all directions that cyclists might approach the junction from (This can exclude streets that are not part of the cycle network). For each street leading into the junction, its guidepost will probably not include the destinations that this street is coming from.

Uses

• Knowing whether to expect a guidepost at or before a junction can help to find it.

• For mappers, a single board guidepost can be a hint that there might be more guideposts at this junction.

• Quality assurance can compare the destinations on board guideposts at the same junction to find errors in OSM data or on the guideposts.

• Of course, the key could also be used to render realistic images of guideposts.

Tagging

• guidepost_shape=fingers: The different directions are shown by "fingers" pointing in those directions. These are usually labeled on both sides.
• guidepost_shape=board: The different directions are shown by arrows drawn on a board. The board is pointing in a specific direction and only readable from this direction. This direction can be tagged using direction=*. Destinations that one is coming from are usually omitted.

In both cases, the destinations can be mapped using destination on ways, destination sign relations or Key:direction_north. If Key:direction_north is used on board guideposts, the ordinal directions in the key and direction=* should be consistent accross all guidepost of the junction.
So, if there is a board guidepost on a street coming from northeast and pointing to a destination to the south, there should also be a board guidepost on the street coming from the south, and this should have a destination towards northeast. Exceptions can occur (mainly because of oneway restrictions).

Examples

Values

value	description	example	other tags
fingers	fingers pointing in different directions	guidepost with fingers	bicycle=yes direction_northeast=(Bf) Haan 11 km;(S) Hilden 4.4 km
board	flat sign with arrows for different directions	guidepost as board	bicycle=yes direction_south=Langenfeld 9.0 km;(S) Hilden 4.6 km;4 direction=NE

Features/Pages affected

guidepost_shape=*

External discussions

• Dutch forum
• German forum

Comments

Please comment on the discussion page.