Tag:highway=bus_stop
+/- highway=bus_stop
A bus stop is a place where public buses stop.
Used combinations in
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Definition
This tag is for a bus stop, which may be identified by a pole, a shelter, a bus bay and/or a yellow zigzag line on the street. In some countries customary bus stops without any physical infrastructure at all are common.
Tagging advice
Common Usage (node positioning)
The widely used approach is to place bus stop nodes off to one side of the highway way, so not with node being part of the way. This easily captures the important information about which side of the road the bus stop is on, however this has been the subject of some debate, because it has the disadvantage of not explicitly associating the bus stop with the way (a headache for routing software) See discussion and the more exact usage described below
A bus stop should be defined for each discrete location where buses stop. If there are two places where buses stop on either side of the road then two bus stops should be defined.
A bus stop is a type of Stop Point as defined in Transmodel.
More detailed Usage (used in several Central European cities)
In April 2011 a new and more detailed public transport proposal has been approved. Long before this approvel several public-transport-city/network-wiki pages (especially in Central Europe) recommended already the usage of this (or a similar) extended schema in their area.
The schema has the following basic understanding:
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Stopping Point is the point on the street where the bus stops. |
 
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Platform is the place where the passengers are waiting for the bus. |
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Stop Place / Stop Area is the sum of the stopping point, the platform and other things related to a bus stop and is tagged as a relation. |
Stopping Point
The Stopping Point is the place where the bus stops on the street.
This definition is in accordance to Transmodel, a reference model for public transportation. The stopping point is part of the street, so it will get mapped as a node of the way. Most widely used is the following convention:
| Tag | Usage | Description |
|---|---|---|
| highway=bus_stop | mandatory | Defines the stopping point of the bus on the street. In contrast to the old schema this node is part of the way and not anymore beside the way.
According to the new public transport schema this tag should be complemented with public_transport=stop_position+bus=yes. |
| public_transport=stop_position | recommended | According to the new public transport schema this replaces highway=bus_stop. |
| bus=yes | recommended | According to the new public transport schema this replaces highway=bus_stop. |
| name=* | recommended | Name of the bus stop, especially when there exists no public_transport=stop_area-.
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| ref_name=* | optional | Name which is used in Internet timetables, usually a combination of bus stop name and city name; e.g. ref_name=Steintor, Hannover. |
| network=* | optional | Name of the network if exists. |
| operator=* | optional | Name of the operator. |
| ref=* | optional | Reference of the bus stop. |
| railway=tram_stop | optional | Tagged if it is also a tram stop. This can be replaced with public_transport=stop_position+tram=yes. |
| tram=yes | optional | According to the new public transport schema this replaces railway=tram_stop. |
Platform
The platform is the place where the passengers are waiting for the buses.
It can be drawn as a node, way or area, depending on information available to the mapper. Here is how to tag it:
| Tag | Usage | Description |
|---|---|---|
| public_transport=platform | mandatory | A place aside streets where passengers can wait for PSV. |
| name=* | recommended | Name of the bus stop, especially when there exists no public_transport=stop_area-
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| highway=platform | optional | Replaced by public_transport=platform. Mainly for compatibility to older software not yet handling public_transport=* tags. |
| bus=yes | optional | If passengers can board or alight buses at this platform. |
| network=* | optional | Name of the network if exists. |
| operator=* | optional | Name of the operator. |
| ref=* | optional | Reference of the bus stop. |
| tram=yes | optional | If passengers can board or alight trams at this platform. |
Stop Area
The Stop Area is tagged as a relation and contains all nodes and ways that are related to the bus stop in reality. In addition to the highway=bus_stop and highway=platform those are mainly amenity=shelter and amenity=bench, if they are drawn separately (alternatively they may be captured by appending the proper tags, shelter=yes or bench=yes to the highway=platform-primitive.
| Tag | Usage | Description |
|---|---|---|
| type=public_transport | mandatory | Defines the relation as type=public_transport |
| public_transport=stop_area | mandatory | Defines public_transport=* as stop area (in this case as bus stop) |
| name=* | recommended | Name of the bus stop. |
| network=* | optional | Name of the network if exists. |
| operator=* | optional | Name of the operator. |
| ref=* | optional | Reference of the bus stop. |
Further information
If there are three bus stops in a row on one side of the road then there should be three stops identified on the way.
More background information about the used schema can be found under approved public transport schema.
considerations
Remember buses also stop OFF streets in designated bus stations and bus areas where there will be designated stops/bays often on specific platforms. These can still be tagged as highway=bus_stop
There are many ideas for additional tags to describe a bus stop. The main four tags to use are:
highway=bus_stop
name=* Basically whatever is shown, but this MUST be a name e.g City Centre KD, Acocks Green Village SA, NOT a location which is tagged separately. If this information is present recording and tagging it will be greatly appreciated by all kinds of future public transport applications using OSM data. If mappers can adopt this format, the applications will be more robust.
shelter=*
source=* Usually survey (note: can be saved in changeset comments since API0.6)
Additionally you can add anything that you know or can see on the actual bus stop. Please be aware not every bus stop carries the same information or indeed the complete set listed below, they vary widely not just between countries, but also between cities and regions. The more detail you can add the better.
A useful standard way of tagging some of this information (it’s not an exhaustive list, please feel free to add more) is as follows:
ref=*, uic_ref=* or asset_ref=*
operator=* Whatever is explicitly shown or you know. Some stops are used by specific operators, others are used by many.
network=* The network this bus stop belongs to.
url=* if there is an online resource listing a bus timetable.
Bus Routes
Currently these are best represented as relations. Follow the conventions at Relation:route wiki page.
The tags route_ref, location and towards in conjunction with highway=bus_stop should not be used anymore, instead this information should be added to the corresponding relations.
Photos
NaPTAN import in the UK
- Main article: NaPTAN/Import
Note for mappers in the UK. There's some progress with importing some 360,000 bus stops, ferry terminals etc from the NaPTAN(National Public Transport Access Node) database. Data from this import will be tagged as naptan:datafieldname= contents e.g naptan:ATCOCode= 347891132. There will be trial on a region first to work out how to integrate locally generated data with this national dataset and there is also work being carried out on a visual tool for comparison/merge with existing data or straight verification where no local data exists. This should take a couple of months, and progress will be reported here. If you see naptan tags appearing they will be essential for future public transport applications and they represent an immensely rich dataset. It’s pretty crucial that you don’t mess with them or delete them. We’ll be able to do some pretty cool stuff once this data is in OSM and it will save mappers an awful lot of editing slog, so please treat it with respect. There’s lots more data in the NaPTAN dataset than bus stops – it covers every form of public transport and there will no doubt be future projects concerning import of other data
See also
- public_transport=station
- Buses
- Proposed features/Public_Transport (approved)
- Proposed features/unified stoparea
External links
Transmodel terms starting with (S)
Related terms: bus stop.
