Key:crossing

crossing
Description
Further refinement for nodes already tagged with highway=crossing or railway=crossing
Group: Properties
Used on these elements
Documented values: 8
Requires
highway=crossing or railway=crossing
Useful combination
lit=* wheelchair=*
Status: approved
crossing=* More details at taginfo
Tools for this tag
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This tag is used for more accurately describing specific types of pedestrian crossings across roads, and other types of crossing over road or rail. Crossing infrastructure for the convenience of pedestrians, cyclists etc. should first be tagged with highway=crossing or railway=crossing as appropriate. The specific type of crossing may be further specified with the crossing=* tag and other properties described below.

The tag is set for the node where the both ways are crossing (footway and street, street and railway and so on). For detailed mapping it may be useful to tag ways leading from a sidewalk to the crossing node with footway=crossing or cycleway=crossing as appropriate.

The crossing tag

crossing=traffic_signals

Position this tag where the crossing-traffic (pedestrian, bicycles) have their own traffic lights.

Mostly near highway=traffic_signals.

See also Proposed features/Set of Traffic Signals

traffic_signals:sound=yes/no

Pedestrian traffic (Pelican/Toucan/Pegasus) with sound for the visually impaired.

traffic_signals:vibration=yes/no

Pedestrian traffic signals (Pelican/Toucan/Pegasus) with vibration for the visually impaired.

crossing=uncontrolled

A generic crossing with no traffic-signals of any type, just road markings; e.g., zebra-crossings. Generally referred to as a "crosswalk" in the US).

Mostly in combination with highway=crossing.

The bicycle crossing traverses two carriageways and some tram tracks with one traffic light. The pedestrian crossing has two islands with separate traffic lights.

crossing=no

Where definitely no crossing is possible/legal. This tag must be used without a highway=crossing, so data consumers only evaluating the high-level highway tag are not mislead into assuming a crossing here.
As crossing=no excludes the existence of a crossing, the combination of highway=crossing and crossing=no is invalid.
Thus, if there is a place where one would expect a crossing but where is definitely no crossing, you may tag this with crossing=no but without highway=crossing.

crossing=unmarked

A crossing without road markings or traffic lights

crossing=island

A crossing with a small traffic-island for pedestrians in the middle of the road. Note that this tag is highly confusing, as it is orthogonal to traffic_signals/uncontrolled/unmarked classification. Tagging highway=crossing with crossing=island makes impossible to distinguish between crossing=traffic_signals and crossing=uncontrolled. For this reason many editors do not use this tag and some consider it as a broken tagging scheme. Alternatively, crossing:island=yes can be used in addition to crossing=traffic_signals/uncontrolled/unmarked.

Mostly in combination with highway=crossing, it would be very unusual for this feature to appear on railway=crossing.

Additional tags

bicycle=*

A value of yes means that pedal cyclists are permitted to ride across the crossing.

horse=*

A value of yes means that horse riders are permitted to ride across the crossing.

button_operated=yes/no

Green light on a traffic signal can be requested by a bicycle rider or pedestrian by button press.

segregated=yes/no

Like many others, this parameter is Boolean , i. e. it can take the values "yes" or "no". Different from several other Boolean parameters, in this case no default is assumed. A value of yes indicates that crossing traffic of differing types is segregated from each other (there is a separate crossing area for each mode of transport). At many traffic lights, crossing foot and bicycle traffic are segregated. A more regional example is the segregation of horse and foot traffic within some UK Pegasus Crossings.

supervised=yes/no

This is a Boolean parameter, too. But there is the default no. A value of yes indicates that the crossing may be managed by a crossing guard at busy times.

crossing_ref=*

The traditional, region-specific reference, such as zebra or pelican.

sloped_curb=yes/no/one/both

To indicate whether a wheelchair can pass the crossing.

Tag on the node representing the kerb (en_US: curb) on the highway=footway for each side of the crossing. Add the footway as single way where needed. (Consider using kerb=* instead as it is a more general purpose method. Add your input to the relevant talk pages.)

tactile_paving=yes/(no)/incorrect

To indicate whether there is a pattern in the ground to aid the blind.

Tag on the node representing the kerb (en_US: curb) on the highway=footway. Add the footway as single way where needed.

flashing_lights=yes/no

(default is no) A value of yes indicates that flashing lights warn drivers when a pedestrian is crossing. For more detail, consider using a value of button, sensor (if the lights turn on automatically), or always (if the lights are constantly flashing).

Examples

The following table shows how the crossing might be tagged:

Name and description	Tags	shortcuts (crossing=* and crossing_ref=* combined)	Image
Zebra crossing A crossing for pedestrians only with distinctive white stripes on the road and no traffic lights (but in the UK with flashing amber globes on poles).	highway=crossing crossing=uncontrolled crossing_ref=zebra	crossing=zebra
Tiger crossing A crossing for pedestrians and cyclists with distinctive white stripes on the road and no traffic lights (but in the UK but with flashing amber globes on poles). (This type of crossing is limited to UK.)	highway=crossing crossing=uncontrolled crossing_ref=tiger bicycle=yes	crossing=tiger
Pelican crossing ('traditional' UK crossing name) A crossing for pedestrians only with traffic lights (button operated or not).	highway=crossing crossing=traffic_signals bicycle=no segregated=no crossing_ref=pelican traffic_signals:sound=yes/no traffic_signals:vibration=yes/no traffic_signals:arrow=yes/no traffic_signals:minimap=yes/no	crossing=pelican
'Toucan' crossing ('traditional' UK crossing name) A crossing for pedestrians and cyclists with traffic lights (button-operated or not).	highway=crossing crossing=traffic_signals bicycle=yes segregated=no crossing_ref=toucan traffic_signals:sound=yes/no traffic_signals:vibration=yes/no traffic_signals:arrow=yes/no traffic_signals:minimap=yes/no	crossing=toucan
Pegasus crossing ('traditional' UK crossing name) A crossing for pedestrians, cyclists, and horse riders with traffic lights (button-operated or not, often identified not by a crossing rideway but by very high buttons for the riders).	highway=crossing crossing=traffic_signals traffic_signals:arrow=yes/no traffic_signals:minimap=yes/no bicycle=yes horse=yes segregated=yes (sometimes no) crossing_ref=pegasus traffic_signals:sound=yes/no traffic_signals:vibration=yes/no	crossing=pegasus
A supervised crossing Called a school crossing in UK. (DE: Schülerlotsen/Verkehrshelfer; NL: Klaar-over)	highway=crossing (or traffic_signals, as appropriate) crossing=uncontrolled (or traffic_signals, as appropriate) supervised=yes
Traffic-Signals without a "pedestrian crossing"	highway=traffic_signals crossing=no
A crossing with an island	highway=crossing crossing=island;uncontrolled (or traffic_signals, as appropriate) Uses multiple values
An unmarked crossing with sloped curbs	highway=crossing crossing=unmarked sloped_curb=yes (on nodes of highway=footway at curb)

Tagging crossings as ways

Some mappers tag a way segment of a highway=footway or highway=cycleway that crosses multiple roads and/or railways with crossing=traffic_signals to indicate that there is only one traffic light controlling the cyclist or pedestrian, to avoid multiple nodes being tagged as crossings.

Similarly, a way segment of a highway=footway is being tagged crossing=uncontrolled + crossing_ref=zebra to indicate its full length.

Disadvantage: Please note that this mapping style makes it difficult for routers and navigation systems to recognise that there is a crossing for pedestrians or cyclists along the road, since there is no special crossing node on the route being evaluated.

See Also

• Approved features/Road crossings - the original proposal for this tag
• Cycle routes - closely linked with many toucan crossings
• Proposed features/Traffic_island

External Links

• Pedestrian_crossing (wikipedia) - international differences and terminology