[Tagging] Entrance and exit roads for parking lots: `service=?`

Gioele Barabucci gioele at svario.it
Sun Aug 7 21:17:33 BST 2011


Hello,

I could not find precise guidelines on how to tag the roads leading to 
and exiting from a parking lot. Should tags like 
`service=parking_entrance` and `service=parking_exit` be formally 
proposed? Or could `service=driveway` or `service_parking=driveway` be 
used to mark such roads?

The wiki page [1] says «Roads within a carpark should be tagged as 
`highway=service` with additional tag `service=parking_aisle`. This 
should probably include the entrance and exit roads.»

I see two issues with tagging entrance roads with 
`service=parking_aisle`. First, to me, a non-native English speaker, a 
parking aisle is only «an area in a parking lot between rows of parking 
spaces» [2], not a generic road inside a parking lot or leading to it. 
Maybe this is one of the many cases in which the common usage of a word 
is different from its definition. Also, sometimes these entrance road 
are quite long and convoluted, tagging them as `parking_aisle` may 
mislead (future?) applications that use OSM data to find parking lots. 
These applications may think that you can park along those roads as you 
can in parking aisles, something that is wrong and often dangerous.

Maybe it could be useful to propose a pair of new values for `service` 
like `service=parking_entrance` and `service=parking_exit`. The wiki 
page for `amenity=parking` somehow asks for them :) Please note that 
there is already an `amenity=parking_entrance` [3], used to map the 
entrance points of underground and multi-storey parking lots. This would 
be its natural extension to service roads.

Another option would be reusing `service=driveway` to mark these roads. 
The wiki page for driveways [4] describes them as «service roads leading 
to a residence or business, usually with private access». I found some 
instances of "driveway leading to a parking lot" and similar sentences. 
Is is OK, from a linguistic point of view,  to identify these roads as 
driveways? Maybe we could introduce a `service=parking_driveway` tag.

Last idea: motorways have `*_link` tags, maybe a `service=parking_link` 
tag could be used?

I see a problem in marking the roads leading to a parking lot as 
`service=parking_aisle`. At the same time I do not know which 
alternative is the best. Any opinion?

Bye,

[1] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:amenity%3Dparking
[2] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:service%3Dparking_aisle
[3] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:amenity%3Dparking_entrance
[4] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:service%3Ddriveway

--
Gioele Barabucci <gioele at svario.it>




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