Proposal talk:Lay-by

Discussion

Only lay-bys which are physically separated from the road, though, not just a parking place by the carriageway.

--User:David.earl 11 Oct 2006

• Would the obvious proposal for this be highway=lay-by?. I think its a nessesery tag, but I would be interested to see more opinions from people that have mapped more of the bigger roads than I have. If it's only used for parking places which are physisically seperated, then would the other ones just be a >P< sign and nothing more?, and in that case how is the legth defined?. I think any parking place could, and should, be tagged. Ben. 04:57 18th Decemeber 2006 (UTC)

• No reply? I'll stick a vote on casue its been here for ages. I would prefer to use this for any layby, not just ones with grass between it and the road it links off. Is this for "layby", or "lay-by"? Please correct the voting bit If I have it wrong Ben. 03:02, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

how about adding attributes to the amenity=parking tag instead? then laybys would just be small parking spaces by the side of the road. (and real car parks that happen to be made from one lane at the edge of a road would be covered also) Ojw 12:56, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

• I think that's too basic considering the range of forms in wich layby's can exsist. There are a few old strips of a road that are now layby's serving the new trunk road that was built over the top. They are detached strips of road. For this, this tag would be suitable for segments/ways. Currently I just have them as unclassified/service, but I think that is incorrect, as they are really somethign that is halfway between a parking area and a road; a layby. Ben. 18:26, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

I think this should be applicable to at least both ways and areas, given the many forms these can appear in. Bobkare 00:32, 7 April 2007 (BST)

Theoretically this could be used to represent a passing place on a narrow road, any comments? Bruce89 00:39, 7 April 2007 (BST)

I think a separate tag like highway=passing_point would be more appropriate, given that you wouldn't usually stop at one of these. TomChance 08:53, 7 April 2007 (BST)

• On German Autobahns, you have rest areas on the side of the road. Sometimes those rest areas are very simple, sometimes they also contain a restaurant and or a fuel station. So far I think it is good to just tag the ways of the rest areas as highway=service and then use amenity=parking (node or area), amenity=fuel and amenity=restaurant or amenity=fast_food wherever it fits. What is the advantage of having highway=layby? RalfZ 13:11, 7 April 2007 (BST)
  • In Norway a "Rasteplass" is a specially signposted place. Those signs also include what kind of amenities are on the place (restaurant, toilet, etc). There is often also a sign with. Next rest area 1km, then the next after that is 20km. I think this kind of area should definitely be tagged specially - though perhaps the separate amenities should be tagged as usual. Bobkare 14:46, 7 April 2007 (BST)
• What's a lay-by? --Hawke 19:20, 11 June 2007 (BST)

• A parking bay / side strip of tarmack / a rest stop etc. I don't really mind what the wording is, but I approved the tag for its use anyway. Ben 23:28, 12 June 2007 (BST)

• As I see it, there are four levels of rest stop:

1. A small area of tarmac on the side of the road, where you can stop without impeeding the flow of traffic, but usually without any amenities of any kind. Occasionally will have rubbish bins or tourist information signs. This is a layby in the UK.

2. A slightly larger area, separated from the main highway by a strip of grass, a barrier or something. May be an olld piece of the main road that is no longer used due to road being straightened. More likely to have bins etc. May have public toilets. May also have a resident burger van. This is also a layby.

3. A well laid-out area, with lots of parking places, public toilets, picnic facilities etc. (This would be an Aire-de-Repos in France) The roads in this area would be tagged with highway=service. The entire area would be tagged with the already existing highway=services (confusing, eh?). This type is very rare in the UK, but quite common in other European countries, and can even be found on motorways.

4. A similar area, but with shops, restaurants and fuel stations. Tagged as above, but with the amenities marked in. All motorway services and nearly all trunk_road services in the UK are of this type.

--Otterylexa 13:52, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Except maybe for the 1., the highway=service works perfectly .... --PhilippeP 11:38, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I've been tagging UK laybys as small areas of amenity=parking, fee=no, parking=surface, with a small area covering the area of the layby. This does mean that there's a line of little P marks up trunk roads in the UK. I would prefer to have a seperate tag to differentiate between laybys (stop if you need to, generally stay in or around the car) and proper parking (stop, get out, go walking/picnic/whatever) - However, I do approve the tagging of laybys, as it's something really useful when driving down a trunk road to know where one can stop ahead (generally you don't know they're there till it's a bit late to stop comfortably)

Me too. I usually add a "note=lay-by" tag so that these can be distinguished from proper parking areas if an official tag become available. If it's a big lay-by separated from the carriageway by a barrier, then I draw the ways as parking_aisles. (Location: UK) --Jeff 19:04, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

There are many of the small lay-bys/pull-offs in the mountains in British Columbia usually because it's difficult or dangerous to pull over just anywhere. So I've also been tagging them as parking. I've noticed some people mapping with a highway=service but it isn't ideal because it doesn't necessarily imply it is safe to stop. The main thing for me, as has been stated, is to identify how far ahead the next stop will be, but also to have it machine readable so navigation software can determine them for you. Other considerations are the side of the road it is on (sometimes you can't use it because it's on the opposite side of the road and it's unsafe to cross over). I don't agree with using highway=lay-by because it adds an additional category for which apps and renderers have to handle when really a lay-by is just a subset of parking. So I think adding parking=lay-by to amenity=parking would be more appropriate. Or maybe for small ones, could potentially use parking:lane=*. There are also the larger ones which is a road which leads off to a parking lots with more facilities. I think Otterylexa @ 13 May 2008 nailed the different types. DFyson (talk) 18:44, 18 March 2017 (UTC)