Talk:Key:segregated

Why none default value?

For basically all highways in the OSM a shared use is assumed. This comes form the common traffic rules which allow shared use too. E.g. pedestrians can use all roads while walk at the border of the road. Only in uncommon cases traffic signs are set up (a motorway is uncommon). So a shared way for cyclists and pedestrians is normal.

Why is segregated=no default for all highways but not for a Shared Foot- and Cycleway? --Hb 11:43, 31 May 2015 (UTC)

If a way is forbidden for motorvehicles (German sign 260 ), but allowed for non-motorized traffic (and perhaps motorized agricultural vehicles), the shared use by pedestrians and cyclists is the default value.

But ways marked by blue signs for pedestrians and/or cyclists are reserved ways (DE: Sonderwege). In D, A, CH, F, each of these spaces is allowed only for the kind of traffic marked on the sign. Also roadside footways (sidewalks) and cycleways only marked by surface design are reserved spaces.

The default value "for all modes of traffic" only exists for carriageways (with those well known exceptions in case of adjacent obligatory cycleways, bridleways etc.) and for (isolated) tracks.--Ulamm (talk) 12:48, 31 May 2015 (UTC)

JOSM rejects this

If I use the tags as decsibed here, JOSM complains "verdächtige Merkmalskombination - highway=footway zusammen mit bicycle=designated" ("suspicious combination highway=footway/bicycle=designated"). Who is right? "highway=üath" is accepted. --GerdHH (talk) 11:11, 11 June 2017 (UTC)

What about highway=footway bicycle=yes

"This key has no default value and should be tagged on all shared ways!"

Is it actually useful to tag it on highway=footway bicycle=yes? It seems that segregated=no is obvious there. See also https://josm.openstreetmap.de/ticket/20318#ticket

After all, if bicycles would have its own designated space, then it would be bicycle=designated, right?

Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 01:31, 29 December 2020 (UTC)

This isn't necessarily the case; it probably depends on the local authority how clearly separated paths are marked (and the country and its rules and the OSM conventions, which determine how bicycle=* is tagged). In my town (in Germany), there are definitely several counterexamples of sidewalks with the German traffic sign DE:239,1022-10 (which in Germany means highway=footway + bicycle=yes) that are nevertheless clearly segregated. I see no reason not to mark them with segregated=yes if that's definitely the case at that location. So, even if no bicycle=designated is tagged here (according to conventions in Germany for these traffic signs). But Germany is also a special case in many aspects when it comes to cycleways and signage, because there are variants and rules that do not exist in most other countries. But that doesn't change the fact that bicycle=yes can also exist together with segregated=yes – at least in Germany. --Goodidea (talk) 23:50, 16 September 2025 (UTC)

Tram segregation

Some road lanes with embedded tram tracks are shared between trams, bicycles, buses, and cars. segregated=no could make this explicit, which may not be necessary if represented by a single way, but in case two ways are necessary, the cycleway/highway could add segregated:tram=*. Alternatively, access:tram=yes could be used, but the opposite can't be used for single segregated ways. segregated=* could be useful for tram tracks shared with buses (segregated:psv=no) and turning vehicles (?) but not taxis (segregated:taxi=yes). Another use case would be a road that is wide enough to allow trams to overtake bicycles but not cars. --Jogemu (talk) 15:34, 12 January 2025 (UTC)

Difference with embedded_rails:lanes=* + vehicle:lanes=* ?
—— Kovposch (talk) 08:07, 17 September 2025 (UTC)

Does it matter how those are segregated and which one is on the left?

It looks like there is no definition here if the bicycle lane is always on the left or not (as per direction of the way). I've a case where a segregated cycle- and footway is build for a street just next to the lanes of the street, separated from the motor traffic only by a curb. And the sidewalk is between the carriageway and the cycleway. So there is the carriageway, then the curb, then 2,0m sidewalk, then painted line and then 2,5m 2-directional cyclepath. So the sidewalk is exceptionally between the carriageway and the cycleway, and I'd like to query OSM data if such solutions exist elsewhere. However it looks like this tag does not contain enough infromation for that? --Thv (talk) 12:07, 10 October 2025 (UTC)

This is not shown by segregated=*
I use highway=path / highway=cycleway + bicycle:lanes=* + foot:lanes=*

• https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/how-to-tag-the-side-of-the-cycleway-footway-on-a-segregated-path/98266/
• https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/mapping-the-position-of-the-cycleway-and-footway-relative-to-each-other/128947/

—— Kovposch (talk) 04:10, 11 October 2025 (UTC)