Key:parking:lane

This page documents the usage of the keys parking:lane=* and parking:condition=* and how to use them to tag streets where cars can be parked. Both are added to a highway=*.

• parking:lane=* is used to express the allowed type or position of parking. Parallel, perpendicular, and diagonal are examples of types of street parking. On-street, on-kerb, and street side are examples of positions of street parking.

• parking:condition=* describes the legal properties of the parking space. You can use this to tag who can park somewhere (residents, customers, etc.), when they can park, how long they can park, and more. It should always be used with parking:lane=*.

Just as with tagging a cycleway=* on a highway=*,

• the keys parking:lane=* and parking:condition=* should always be used with the appended subtags :both, :left, or :right; indicating the side of the street they apply to. (Note: parking:condition=* is sometimes also used on amenity=parking without the subkeys both/left/right.)
• the roadway needs to be split up where any of the parking type, position or condition changes. For example, when parallel parking is available only alongside the first third of a way between two intersections.

Parking adjacent to the carriageway (parking:lane:side:type=street_side) can alternatively be mapped as areas with amenity=parking and parking=street_side. Especially in places where the parking situation is very diverse, this can actually be easier to do and easier to maintain than to split the roadway into many small segments just to accomodate for the different parameters that change down the road.

Examples

Example	Tagging
	highway=residential parking:lane:both=parallel parking:lane:both:parallel=on_street
	it is assumed that way is pointing like vehicles, toward us highway=residential parking:lane:both=parallel parking:lane:right:parallel=on_kerb parking:lane:left:parallel=half_on_kerb
	highway=* parking:lane:both=no_stopping
	it is assumed that way is pointing like vehicles, toward us highway=residential parking:lane:right=parallel parking:lane:right:parallel=on_street

There are more pictures of different roads and how to tag them in Key:parking:lane/Examples.

Parking spaces

The parking:lane tag is used to describe the "physical" properties of the parking (essentially, the orientation) – in other words the types of street parking (and optionally the parking position).

Parking type

The type of parking (or prohibited parking) can be tagged with the key parking:lane:side:type. If no parking is possible, it is also directly specified as a value.

• side is one of the values both, left or right.
• Known values for type are:

Key	Value of type	Description
parking:lane:side:type	parallel	Parking parallel to the road.
	diagonal	Diagonal parking. Also known as angle parking or echelon parking.
	perpendicular	Perpendicular parking, i.e. at a 90° angle to the road so that the the front or back of the vehicle points straight towards the road center line.
	marked	Only some parking spaces are available, these are individually marked. Note that there is an obvious overlap with parking:lane:side:type=painted_area_only (see below). As opposed to this tag, the latter allows to also specify the orientation.
	no_parking	No regular road user is allowed to park on the road. They may stop, though, to for example pick up/drop off a passenger, unload cargo or for other reasons as laid out in the local legislation.
	no_stopping	No regular road user is allowed to stop their vehicle, except when traffic conditions require them to do so. In addition this also implies that neither standing nor parking is allowed.
	no_standing	No regular road user is allowed to park on the road. They may stop, as long as they remain in the vehicle, to for example pick up/drop off a passenger or for other reasons as laid out in the local legislation. This restriction is known and explicitly signed most notably in the United States but unknown in most other legislations.
	fire_lane	In countries where such exist, an extra sign indicating a lane that must be kept clear for possible fire engines, or other emergency vehicles: in a sense equal to, but stricter than a no_stopping.
	no	It is not distinguishing between no_stopping , no_parking and no_standing, it may make sense to use in some cases.
	separate	Parking facilities are mapped explicitly (usually with parking=street_side).

Parking position

Sometimes the parking on the street is allowed at the edge of the driving lane, at other times there is a painted, dedicated strip at the edge of the road, and sometimes one must park on the high side of the kerb stone.

This can be tagged with the key parking:lane:side:type:position.

• side is one of the values both, left or right.
• type takes values of parallel, diagonal or perpendicular, as applicable.
• Known values for position are:

Key	Value of position	Description	Image	Status
parking:lane:side:type:position
	on_street	Parking on the street, which could be easily converted to a travel lane.		In use
	half_on_kerb	Partially on sidewalk.	The right side of	In use
	on_kerb	On sidewalk.	The left side of	In use
	street_side	Parking only in parking bays adjacent to the carriageway, which could not easily be converted into a travel lane. Parking bays, also known as lay-bys, are areas dedicated to parking directly adjacent to the carriageway. Often but not always they are clearly offset from the rest of the carriageway, e.g. using different paving and marked individual spaces. See parking=street_side for more details.		Approved
	lay_by	In the past often used for streetside parking (see above), but ambiguous because lay-by is also the term used for rest areas (see rest areas on Wikipedia). Thus, the newer tag value street_side should be used instead. In case you really want to map a lay-by rest area, consider using layby (without underscore), which is consistent to amenity=parking + parking=layby.		Deprecated
	painted_area_only	Parking only in marked areas on the street. Note that there is an obvious overlap with parking:lane:side=marked. Using this tag instead allows to also specify the orientation (parallel, diagonal or perpendicular).		In use
	shoulder	Shoulders are hard sections of the road area not normally meant to be driven on, they can be of the same surface as the way or of a degraded or use-graded surface; requires shoulder=yes|left|right|both		In use

Distinguishing between on_street and street_side

In many places, it is common to extend the kerb at intersections and crossings to slow down traffic and make it safer to cross for pedestrians. This is tagged as a traffic_calming=choker, it does not make an on_street parking of an entire street into a street_side parking. When there are many chokers in one street, it may become a little hard to distinguish between these two situations in reality.

As a rule of thumb, if the parking cars are on the part of the road that is traversible, i.e. that could and would otherwise be used by traffic, it is parking on_street. If not, it is parking street_side.

Whatever tag value you decide to use in ambiguous situations, it is important to update width=* (or width:carriageway=*) accordingly if it is set because the definitions for those are tied together: The width=* includes the space for on_street parking but excludes the space for street_side parking because the latter count as adjacent to, not on the carriageway.

Examples

• parking:lane:both=parallel: both on the left and right hand side parallel parking is possible.
• parking:lane:both:parallel=half_on_kerb: both on the left and right hand side parallel parking is possible, and the parking position is half on kerb (partially on the sidewalk).
• parking:lane:right=perpendicular: on the right hand side you can park perpendicularly.
• parking:lane:both=marked: there are only some parking spaces available that are individually marked.
• parking:lane:left=fire_lane: stopping is not possible on the left hand side due to fire considerations. (Normally there will be a sign for this.)

Possible enhancements

Specifying the maximum capacity for a given stretch of parking (especially for parking:lane:side=perpendicular). For parking along the street, this can usually be estimated automatically quite accurately. However, if parking is only possible in dedicated spaces ( street_side, painted_area_only), to add such information is potentially more useful.

• parking:lane:right:capacity=9
• parking:lane:right:capacity:disabled=2

Parking conditions

Proposed features/Parking lane conditionals‎‎ proposes to migrate to the conditional restrictions–style tagging. Please discuss on Talk:Proposed features/Parking lane conditionals‎‎.

The parking:condition tag describes the legal properties of the parking space.

Key	Values	Description
parking:lane:side	parallel, diagonal, perpendicular.	For other types, the condition tag makes little sense. For separate, the conditions should be tagged on the separately mapped amenity=parking instead.
parking:condition:side	free	No additional information is required.
	ticket	To be discussed. Maybe add a parking:condition:side:fee_per_hour=1 € tag.
	disc	Time-limited free parking is permitted via a parking disc. Add a parking:condition:side:maxstay=2 h tag to specify the time limit. This means you may park here for up to 2 hours.
	residents	Add a parking:condition:side:residents=A tag. This means "parking only for residents with permission A" (With A being the identification of the permission). A parking permit on a car windshield.
	customers	No additional information is required. This means you are only allowed to park here if you are a customer of the shop that owns this parking space (or a visitor of a site, or a guest of a hotel, or similar).
	private	No additional information is required. This means you are only allowed to park here if you rented the parking space (or have a permission of the owner).
	disabled	Usually, this parking space is not about free or paid. It requires being related to disabled persons or to have such permission.
	no_parking	In combination with time dependences (see examples below), no_parking may also be used as a condition.
	no_stopping	In combination with time dependences (see examples below), no_stopping may also be used as a condition.

Type of vehicles

If the condition is valid only for some vehicles, use

• parking:condition:both:vehicles=motorcar or
• parking:condition:both:vehicles=goods;bus

Residential permits

Area based residential permits often carry some sort of letter or code identifying the area wherein they are valid; this can be recorded using the key: parking:condition:side:residents.

When parking is requires a ticket or a residential permit, the following combination is often used:

• parking:condition:both=ticket
• parking:condition:both:residents=*

More usual OSM tagging convention would, for the same purpose, suggest:

• parking:condition:both=ticket;residents
• parking:condition:both:residents=*

Time dependence

In many occasions, parking conditions are time limited, especially for disc and residents parking. This can be specified by using the following tag: parking:condition:side:time_interval. Values specify both days and times, plus it can be multiplied. It uses the same syntax for values as opening_hours.

Key	Value of time_interval	Description
parking:condition:side:time_interval	<opening_hours>	A date and time specification as per opening_hours, such as Mo-Fr 12:00-14:00

The format is complicated to define technically, but easy to understand by examples:

• 12:00-14:00 means: "every day from 12:00 until 14:00".
• Mo-Fr 00:00-24:00 means: "every weekday (except Saturday and Sunday)".
• Su 20:00-06:00 means: "Sunday night from 20:00 until (Monday) 06:00".

Intervals may be joined by semicolons with optional whitespace:

• Mo-Fr 09:00-20:00; Sa-Su 09:00-14:00 means: "Weekdays 9 to 20, and weekends 9 to 14".

With multiple differing conditions

In the simplest case you have free parking at night, and ticket parking at day on workdays; for example,

• parking:condition:right=ticket
• parking:condition:right:time_interval=Mo-Fr 09:00-19:00
• parking:condition:right:default=free

Sometimes specifying one default condition is not enough. In these cases we end up with an abundance of tags, for example:

• parking:lane:right=parallel
• <empty>
  • parking:condition:right=no_stopping (read: no stopping during morning rush hour; US read: no parking during morning rush hour)
  • parking:condition:right:time_interval=Mo-Fr 07:00-09:00
• 2
  • parking:condition:right:2=disc (read: otherwise, at daytime, short term parking only)
  • parking:condition:right:2:maxstay=30 min
  • parking:condition:right:2:time_interval=Mo-Fr 09:00-18:00
• default
  • parking:condition:right:default=free (read: and free parking at night)

In this example, we couldn't use plain parking:lane:right=no_stopping, as parking is allowed at some times of the day.

Maximum stay

Use parking:condition:side:maxstay to specify maximum stay limits; especially applicable for disc parking. It should take values precisely as per maxstay.

Usage

These taginfo statistics are not representative of all uses of parking:lane=* or parking:condition=* since they do not account for all possible subtags (e.g. parking:lane:right:parallel=*, etc.).

Key	:both	:left	:right
parking:lane=*
parking:condition=*

Notes on evaluating data

Data consumers that require precise spatial data on street parking should consider that depending on the local legislation, implicit parking restrictions may exist that are not explicitly tagged with parking:lane=* etc., so some spatial post-processing may be required. For example, in most legislations throughout the world, parking is prohibited on and about 5 metres around intersections and crossings. Yet, few mappers bother to split up the road the first and last 5 metres of every road to map a no-stopping prohibition with parking:lane=*. In fact, some even deprecate this practice, as such restrictions are implicit or common sense.

Because parking adjacent to the carriageway can also be mapped as areas, some spatial post-processing may be required anyway. In the case above, some possible parking spaces would need to be cut out around the intersection.

Here is a not necessarily complete list of situations that imply a parking restriction which can be found in many legislations and may not come with explicit tagging:

• on motorways and motorroads
• in pedestrian zones, throughfare and parking is forbidden but there may be exceptions for delivery vehicles
• in living streets, parking is usually only allowed in explicitly marked areas
• in some legislations generally on bridges and in tunnels
• often priority roads (at least rural ones) and often on roads where overtaking is forbidden, i.e. where there is a continuous center line
• in roundabouts and circular junctions (junction=roundabout, junction=circular should appear on road line in such cases)
• usually in turning circles and turning loops
• on sections of the roadway marked with arrows, i.e. turn lanes - though often only on side where turn lanes are present
• in front of certain important signs such as the stop sign, saltires or yield traffic because obscuring these signs is dangerous
• at taxi stands and bus stops parking is prohibited. Depending on the legislation, stopping or standing may be allowed
• on and near pedestrian crossings, railway crossings, on tram tracks, etc. stopping is prohibited for obvious reasons. Some legislations allow at least stopping around (not on) crossings.
• at narrow points, sharp bends, fire rescue paths and other places where parking would put the parking car or other traffic in danger
• at entries to driveways and other places where there is a dropped kerb
• in some legislations also in front of police stations, post offices and hospitals

Most of this is common sense, but software does not know common sense. Also, some of these implicit restrictions may in some countries actually be explicitly signed.

Services

zlant.github.io showing rich parking lane data mapped in Vilanova i la Geltrú

• zlant.github.io parking lanes viewer
• Dynamic map Parking properties in OpenStreetMap (uMap)

Using with JOSM

To use these tags correctly, it helps to have visual feedback and contextual tagging assistance available in JOSM. Use of a Map Paint Style and Tagging Presets is highly recommended.

Map Paint Style

There is a map paint style available called Parking lanes (or possibly a translation of this in the language you use JOSM with). It can be installed via JOSM's Map Paint preferences.

Tagging Presets

There is also a set of tagging presets available under the same name. These can be installed via JOSM's Tagging Presets preferences.

Other related keys

Parking ticket vending machines

amenity=vending_machine + vending=parking_tickets

Possible tagging mistakes

parking:lane=*

More details at taginfo

• parking:lane=* ‒ append :side: :left, :right, or :both.

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!

parking:condition=*

More details at taginfo

• parking:condition=* ‒ append :side: :left, :right, or :both.

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!

See also

• parking=lane - Parking on the carriageway, including partially on it
• Parking Map for rendering and how the data is visualised