[Tagging] Sample tagging for highways with no lane markings

[Tod Fitch]

In reviewing the wiki in preparation to fixing some of my older mapping, it seems there is an inconsistency in how to tag a road that is wide enough to two lanes of traffic but is lacking lane striping.

In the lanes description [1] it says "the lanes=* key should be used to specify the total number of marked lanes of a road." But in the out of town highway tagging sample page [2] with a photo described as "smaller road, maybe tertiary with appropriate administrative status" it shows a lane count on a road with no markings.

Am I correct in believing that the example photo should have its tagging changed, dropping the lanes=2 and adding a width tag (if the width is known or can be reasonably estimated)?

My current interest is in fixing the tagging for residential roads that are wide enough for bi-directional traffic with legal parallel parking but have no markings on the pavement. I don't see a exact match to that in either the urban [3] or rural highway [2] tagging example pages.

To use the street I live on as an example, am I correct that a residential road with bidirectional traffic and parallel parking with no markings should be tagged as:

highway=residential
surface=asphalt
parking:lane:both=parallel
width=40’0"
maxspeed=25 mph

If, and only if, a center strip is added then lanes=2 should be added. (I actually measured the width in this case but for hope to be able to use the measurement tool on aerial imagery in JOSM for most cases).

Is my current understanding correct? If so, I will update the wiki pages for both the urban and rural highway tagging examples to reflect that and will take some photos of the roads in my area to make additional examples.


[1] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:lanes#Description
[2] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Highway_tagging_samples/out_of_town
[3] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Highway_tagging_samples/urban