[OSM-talk] [tagging] Crossing access types (was: Road crossings proposal - status?)

[Andrew Chadwick (email lists)]

Steve Hill wrote:
> bicycle=yes|no
> foot=yes|no
> horse=yes|no

Doing this for crossings is not right, IMO. It's a bad usage of
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Key:access , or more
specifically its 'helper' tags like foot=yes|no or bicycle=*. Consider:

 * If two ways cross at a crossing Node, access keys would logically
   apply to both. Declaring that crossings are somehow special and that
   access tags on them apply only to the crossing traffic is worse.

 * The access tag is not documented as being applicable to Nodes. Most
   crossings will be Nodes.

 * In some jurisdictions, crossing traffic may have right of way at all
   times even on button-and-light-controlled crossings. Pushing the
   button merely stops road traffic and gives a safer period for
   crossing. So what we're talking about isn't always an access
   restriction or even an access permission.


To keep things simple, and for the sake of the data, I would prefer
something more like:

  crossing_traffic=<modes>

Where <modes> would be a semicolon-separated list of the tag-names from
the [[Key:access]] page. For example:

  crossing_traffic=foot;bicycle

Presence of a value would indicate a) what sort of crossing traffic a
motorist may expect, and b) what sorts of crossing traffic may use the
crossing. To keep things simple, one would assume a default value of
crossing_traffic=foot anywhere there's a crossing=* or a highway=crossing.

Does that make sense to you guys?


-- 
Andrew Chadwick