User:Jodastephen
These are the mapping conventions I am using in South West London and Sussex, UK. This page also includes useful links.
Overview
My mapping goal is to increase the basic mapping coverage to cover roads, houses, addresses (generally excluding postcodes), sidewalks (pavements), speed limits etc. The goal is not to micro-map.
Interesting choices
Sidewalks are mapped separately when the road is hard/impossible to cross, such as a busy dual carriageway. Town centres would also be worth mapping sidewalks separately. In cases I've seen, this means that most primary and secondary roads should have separate sidewalks in urban areas.
When mapping a separate sidewalk, the road itself should be marked with sidewalk=separate.
Use landuse=residential for areas that include residential roads, but do not cross tertiary, secondary or primary roads. This means that most urban areas, including small villages, will have more than one landuse area for residential.
Do not tie landuse to roads - landuse boundaries should follow the edge of the highway area.
Single node traffic lights are OK, and have both highway=traffic_signals for cars and crossing=traffic_signals for pedestrians.
Urban areas use highway=footway and highway=cycleway in preference to highway=path.
Ways
Roads
Roads should have:
- highway= (primary, secondary, tertiary, residential, service)
- name : should be from a street sign
- maxspeed= (30 mph, ...)
- lit= (yes, no)
- surface= (asphalt, concrete, ...)
- sidewalk= (no, both, left, right, separate)
- oneway= (yes) : only if one way
- postal_code : if present on the street name sign, or derivable from CodePoint (include CodePoint in changeset source tag)
- access= (private) : only included if private
- In practice, I use access=destination where the road is marked as private, but is in practice open and freely driveable/walkable
- In practice, I use access=private where the road is obviously private and you would be very uncomfortable driving/walking up it
Additionally, they may have:
- lanes= (2, 3, etc, when lanes are marked along the length of the road, or lanes=1, especially if narrow and bidirectional)
- turn:lanes= (left;through|through|right ...) : added where appropriate
- foot=discouraged : used when foot traffic should find a different route, such as a turning lane at a large junction
- highway=turning_circle
- highway=give_way : only use to indicate which is the minor road when ambiguous, usually with direction= (forward, backward)
- highway=speed_camera : see also enforcement
- highway=mini_roundabout
- traffic_calming= (bump, hump, cushion, table, chicane, choker)
- maxwidth= (7'0", 2.5m) for choker
Service roads:
- highway=service
- service=driveway : also used for shared driveways
- add driveway=rear̠access and access=private where the service road provides private access to the rear of properties (necessary to add to the map, but should be minimally visible)
- add driveway=garages where the service road provides access to a set of garages, generally also with access=private
- do not use service=alley or highway=track within most UK towns
- service=parking_aisle : generally needs main structure adding as well
Paths
Footway
- highway=footway : if it looks like a footpath
- highway=steps : for steps on a footpath
- lit (yes, no)
- surface (asphalt, concrete, ...)
Public footpath
- designation=public_footpath : if it is a public footpath (usually via a sign)
- source:designation= (eg.Sign at south end) : Worth recording special status
- prow_ref= (eg. "Merton FP 123") : if it is a public footpath (usually via a sign)
- source:prow_ref= (eg.Sign at south end) : Worth recording special status
- foot= (yes, designated) : designated if there is a blue circle sign, yes otherwise
- bicycle= (no, permissive, dismount) : no if red circle sign, permissive if likely some people do, blank if neither
Green area footpath
- foot= (yes, permissive) : yes for public access allowed, permissive otherwise
Estate footpath
Sidewalk
- footway=sidewalk : if it is a separately mapped sidewalk, which is useful for those main roads (eg. dual carriageways) that are hard/dangerous to freely cross
- footway=crossing : for road crossings linked to a sidewalk
- a combined cycle/foot sidewalk has to be highway=path, footway=sidewalk, foot=designated, bicycle=designated, segregated=*
Cycleway
- highway=cycleway : if it looks like a cyclepath (usually via a sign)
- bicycle= (yes, no, designated) : designated if there is a blue circle sign
- foot= (yes, no, designated) : designated if there is a blue circle sign
- segregated= (yes,no)
- lit (yes, no)
- surface (asphalt, concrete, ...)
Crossings, traffic lights and junctions
Pedestrian crossing
- highway= (traffic signals, crossing) : traffic_signals when a single node represents the whole pelican/toucan, crossing otherwise
- traffic_signals:direction= (forward, backward) : when marking for road traffic on a two way road
- crossing= (traffic_signals, uncontrolled, unmarked)
- crossing_ref= (pelican, toucan, zebra) : only if one of these
- crossing:island= (yes, no)
- kerb= (lowered, flush)
- tactile paving= (yes, no)
- countdown_signal= (yes, no)
Landuse
- landuse=residential : should not cross any road other than residential, residential roads should generally be in the landuse
- landuse=recreation_ground : should include whole land, including car parks and buildings
- landuse=retail : should include the land and not the road, although this makes Carto look rubbish