[Tagging] Unclear meaning of amenity=bus_station

[Wiklund Johan]

I think there is no realistic distinction to be made between a bus station and a "regular" bus stop. Mainly because each bus stop is different from the next. One could argue that any bus stop where more than one waiting area is a bus station, or if it has some kind of amenity tied to it like a waiting room or toilets. But any stop can have an amenity, and the most rural and amenity-free stop can support several buses and have multiple waiting areas. We also have an example with tour bus stops in front of a tourist attraction: they may be far larger and better than most so called bus stations even. Should they be bus station too?

I clearly see the usefulness of having big and small bus stops, but to give them a definition that works on a step-free scale of difference worldwide is always going to be hard.

I think I personally would prefer a large bus stop as an area exclusively for used public transport bus activity (potentially in combination with taxi) and the smaller bus stop as a place where a bus can stop among other traffic. But that's my wish and may not be 1:1 with the current modeling of stops.

(by large and small bus stops I'm thinking about the way they are rendered)



-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Townsend [mailto:ajt1047 at gmail.com] 
Sent: mandag 9. april 2018 13.43
To: tagging at openstreetmap.org
Subject: Re: [Tagging] Unclear meaning of amenity=bus_station

On 09/04/2018 11:55, Mateusz Konieczny wrote:
> Currently definition at
> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:amenity%3Dbus_station
> is unclear, it fits two cases
>
> * intercity bus station (routes between cities, importance comparable
>    to railway=station)
> * terminus highway=bus_stop (routes within city terminate and start
>    here, minor importance, importance lower than railway=halt)
>
> while in my experience tag is used only in the first case (what makes 
> sense).
>
> Would it be OK to edit wiki and restrict it only to the first meaning?
>

Being a bus station or not has nothing to do with whether the routes from there are intercity or not (though often intercity routes will stop at a bus station rather than elsewhere) or whether bus routes terminate or not (though often they will).

I suspect the wiki author is just trying to describe "what tends to happen at" a bus station rather than defining it.  The picture on the wiki is somewhat confusingly a combined tram and bus station; maybe pictures of more examples from more continents would help?

Best Regards,
Andu


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