Tag:information=guidepost

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Public-images-osm logo.svg information = guidepost
Signpost.jpg
Description
Used to mark a guidepost/signpost Show/edit corresponding data item.
Rendering in OSM Carto
Guidepost-14.svg
Group: tourism
Used on these elements
may be used on nodesshould not be used on waysshould not be used on areasshould not be used on relations (except multipolygon relations)
Requires
Useful combination
Status: de factoPage for proposal

Guideposts (aka fingerposts or finger posts) are often found along official hiking/cycling/riding/skiing routes to indicate the directions to different destinations. Additionally, they are often named after a region or place and show the altitude.

The position of a signpost can be used by a hiker/biker/rider/skier as a confirmation of the current position, especially if they use a printed map without a GPS receiver.

The content of the sign can be tagged using either destination=* on the corresponding way or Relation:destination_sign for a more complete representation - see also below in Destinations

How to map

Create a node at the exact position and tag with the following values. Please do not tag a crossroads as a guidepost.

To describe the type(s) of the shown route(s), use the tags hiking=yes, bicycle=yes, mtb=yes, horse=yes or ski=yes. Note that these tags don't describe the legal access to the guidepost. To make this explicitly clear instead of e.g. hiking=yes you could alternatively use guidepost:hiking=yes or guidepost=hiking, though this is less common, not widely supported and would add no additional meaning.

Tag Required Description
tourism=information required To define it as touristic point.
information=guidepost required
guidepost=* optional used to describe what it is related to, e.g. hiking
guide_type=* optional used to describe what type it is, e.g. destination, see also information=route_marker
name=* optional The name of the place inscribed on the guidepost, if there is one.
ele=* optional Inscribed height of place above sea level in metres.
ref=* optional Reference number of the guidepost.

Destinations

There are currently three options how to tag the contents of the signs. These are mostly complementary and not competing, because they all offer different amounts of detail:

  • destination=* on the signpost. Note that no information about the direction the sign points to is given, so this describes the signpost itself, but not its relation to ways or intersections. If several destinations are given, they are separated by a ;.
    • The Italian CAI uses an extended scheme, separating the individual arrows by vertical bars (|). Multiple destinations on one single arrow are still separated by semicolons (;). See CAI#Luoghi di posa.
  • Relation:destination_sign is used for the most complete description. Distances, walking times, symbols and directions can also be given explicitly. This is the most complex tagging scheme as it requires its own relation with at least three members for each direction the sign points to. There are about 100k relations of this type in the database (Aug 2019).
  • There is a third scheme that was added to the German Wiki page some years ago that combines simple tagging and gives approximate information about direction (direction_north=*, direction_east=*, ... direction_northeast=*). As of August 2019, these tags had been used about 20k times. By July 2023, they were used 95k times.

Examples

Photo Tagging
Signpost.jpg
tourism=information
information=guidepost
name=Breitenau
ele=1250
hiking=yes
(see node 8712605021)
Rozcestník Soušská silnice - Jizerská magistrála.jpg
tourism=information
information=guidepost
name=Fojtovická pláň
ele=720
ref=UL029
hiking=yes
ski=yes
(see node 2648315141)
Špindlerův Mlýn, rozcestník na náměstí.jpg
tourism=information
information=guidepost
name=Špindleruv Mlýn (námestí)
ref=TK052/5
hiking=yes
bicycle=yes
(see node 575997747)
Lodzki Szlak Konny na Luku Zaleczanskim.jpg
tourism=information
information=guidepost
horse=yes

Rendering

See also