Key:addr:street

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Public-images-osm logo.svg addr:street
UK - London (30474933636).jpg
Description
The street name that this address is (and any others in this location are) grouped by. This street name should match that of a nearby road, track or path. Show/edit corresponding data item.
Group: addresses
Used on these elements
may be used on nodesmay be used on waysmay be used on areas (and multipolygon relations)use on relations unspecified
Status: de factoPage for proposal

This key is for the portion of the feature's address that conventionally indicates a street name. Depending on the country, the street name portion may appear before or after the house number (addr:housenumber=*). You should generally spell out abbreviations in full.

The street name may or may not be physically signposted as part of the address. For example, in the United States, the street name is more likely to be posted on a commercial address than a retail or residential one. Regardless, it is important to accompany addr:housenumber=* with addr:street=* to avoid ambiguity and keep geocoders from having to make potentially faulty assumptions.

Typically, the street name in the address matches the name=* of the nearby street (highway=residential etc.). However, corner cases are common – including, literally, at street corners. If a property abuts two streets, depending on the locality, you may or may not be able to determine the street name in the address based which street the entrance, driveway, or mailbox faces. Comparing the addr:housenumber=* to the patterns of surrounding buildings' addr:housenumber=* values may offer a clue as to which street the address is associated with.

An address may bear the name of a street that no longer exists, has been demolished, or never existed in the first place. Sometimes the name of a pedestrian walkway (highway=pedestrian) or square (place=square[1]) is used instead of a drivable street. Sometimes a route number appears in the address instead of a proper street name. Sometimes the roadway's name=* must use one spelling of the street name based on street name signs, but the addresses along it must use a different spelling in order to receive mail, so tagging the roadway with alt_name=* can be helpful.

Alternatives

The associated street can alternatively be represented by a associatedStreet relation or street relation. The keys addr:housenumber=* and addr:street=* in principle are the only necessary ones if there are valid border polygons. If you are not sure if it is so, just add addr:city=*, addr:postcode=* and addr:country=*.

In a country whose postal address format normally names a landmark but not a street, use addr:place=* instead.

Possible tagging mistakes

If you know places with this tag, verify if it could be tagged with another tag.
Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!

Notes

  1. Note that using addr:street for a place=square name is flagged as an error by the Nominatim QA tool in the "Suspicious addr:street tag" layer.