[Tagging] Tagging of community mailboxes (cluster maiboxes)

wolfy1339 webmaster at wolfy1339.com
Fri Oct 21 22:15:15 UTC 2022


Hello community!

I have come here to ask some questions regarding the tagging of what we 
call community mailboxes in Canada (where each resident living in the 
area has their own locker for incoming mail, and there is an outgoing 
mail slot and some parcel lockers for things that don't fit in the 
regular lockers), hopefully you can help me out!

We have been discussing on the talk-ca list 
(https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-ca/2022-October/010520.html), 
as someone on the OSM World Discord has asked how to tag them,
I kindly linked to the Canadian Tagging Guidelines page on the wiki, and 
another user said that that was wrong tagging.

That wasn't the first time a similar conversation was had. A user from 
the USA had also asked about the tagging, though for the equivalent down 
there, and it was suggested to them to put 2 nodes, one letter box, and 
one post box.

Currently, the recommended tagging for these community mailboxes is as 
follows 
(https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:post_box:type#Values_in_use_in_Canada):

     amenity=post_box
     post_box:type=community

The `amenity=post_box` tag seems to be only for outgoing mail only, 
while this handles both incoming, and outgoing mail in one feature, 
while the  `amenity=letter_box` is for incoming mail only.

How would you recommend this be tagged, as it seems there isn't a clear 
consensus between international users?

Should they be re-tagged as letter boxes?
     - How would it be tagged that this is a community mailbox, that it 
isn't a private mailbox for just one address, you can't reasonably now 
which address the mailbox services, and one mailbox can service a couple 
streets that are close-by.

Should an extension of `amenity=parcel_locker` be thought of since the 
functionality similarly intersects?


Thank you,

wolfy1339

Quebec Canada




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