[OSM-talk] Parking and Access

[Kev]

Hi All,

While trying (and failing miserably) to find a parking space in 
Birmingham (UK) the other day (terrible sign age - talk about leaving it 
to the last minute - AND to top it all I must have parked in the one 
multi-story not already mapped on OSM in Brimingham) it got me thinking 
about the parking access restrictions - on the Wiki there is no 
consensus of how these should be tagged properly - has there been any 
general consensus on this in the past?

In my experience there are three different types of parking:-

*Private car parks* - limited to those with valid permits or employees 
and authorised visitors of the site (this may also be a small section of 
a larger car park - i.e. Staff Only).
IMHO: access=private
IMHO You would only want to route to these if you specifically select them.

*Private car parks open to the public* - limited to those using the 
sites facilities - e.g. a Leisure Centre car park, one on a retail park, 
one at a supermarket
IMHO: access=destination
IMHO You would only want to route to these if you specifically select 
them or the related businesses (are there any relations to say these car 
parks are related to the shops surrounding them?)

*Public car parks* - Open to anyone for any (legal) usage, sometimes on 
payment of a fee - e.g. your typical council run multi-story
IMHO: access=yes
IMHO these would be routable whenever you want to find parking nearby...

It would also be useful if the wiki page included the "operator" key to 
encourage it's usage- this would make it easy for a Sat Nav device to 
enable the user to search for "Car Parks operated by NCP near here" or 
similar (for when you have a discount card / account enabling you to 
park cheaper / pre-paid at an operators various sites.

It would also be useful for showing the (primary) payment method (for 
none contract users*):-
e.g.

Pay on return (I.e. you pay at a machine when you return to the car 
park, but before returning to you vehicle)
Pay at exit (i.e. you pay at the exit barrier)
Pay and Display (i.e. you park, pay, go shopping, return to vehicle, go)
Free

(Some places also have free periods - e.g. 00:00 - 07:00; 18:00 - 24:00 
Mon - Sat; Some are free if you have your receipt validated; Some are 
free if you use them for less than 30 minutes etc,,,)

Alongside the available payment methods
e.g.
Cash
Cash (Exact Change Only)
Visa
Mastercard
Mastro
Mobile_Phone

When visiting an unfamiliar city I (personally) would like to be able to 
set my sat nav destination to a car park near Corporation Street, 
Birmingham which meats my selected preferences.
My preferences may then be
Payment Type : Free OR pay on exit OR pay on return
Car Park Type: multi-story
Payment Methods : Cash OR Mastercard
Operated by : NCP or "Euro Car Parks" or "Nottingham City Council"
Obviously any decent routing software would realise that there may be a 
nearer car park that doesn't match everything and could suggest that to 
you to.

As a small side issue, when it comes to rendering the car parks I think 
it would be benifical to show multi-story car parks differently - some 
people like to avoid them as they feel "unsafe", while other prefer them 
as you know there are usually going to be some sensible rules on usage 
reducing the risk of clamping.- e.g the "P" with a border or some sort 
of 3D effect?

Kev
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