Proposal:Barriers

The Feature Page for the approved proposal Key:barrier is located at Key:barrier

barriers
Proposal status:	Approved (active)
Proposed by:	*
Tagging:	barrier=* Data item
Statistics:
Rendered as:	red dot, dotted grey
RFC start:	2008-01-04
Vote start:	2008-08-16
Vote end:	2008-10-19

Rationale

Provide a way to indicate physical barriers. legal barriers elsewhere. also not only impediments to a given "way", but also to free movements such as a walk (not following a path) in the countryside. also barriers to all types of "beings" such as vehicles, humans or animals.

This proposal is not intended to cover barriers in waterways, which probably belong under natural (e.g. waterfalls, rapids) or man_made (e.g. dams)

Usage

common use is barrier=* (freeform), but here are some predefined values just to prevent bad spelling and common names for the same barrier:

Linear

barrier (rendered along the way)

• bollard a long line of bollards, eg. around the edge of a plaza/pedestrian area
• city_wall is a fortification used to defend a city or settlement from potential aggressors. In ancient to modern times, they were used to enclose settlements.
• fence to keep people or animals off an area of land or inside an area of land
• hedge a row of tree or shrubs used to prevent passage
• retaining_wall A wall that amounts to a (usually) small human-made cliff
• wall to keep people off or inside an area

Node

barrier (rendered perpendicular to/across the way)

• block any big, usually concrete blocky barriers that can be moved with heavy machinery
• bollard solid (usually concrete or metal) pillar or pillars in the middle of the road to prevent passage by some traffic
• bus_trap bus_sluice
• cattle_grid
• drawbridge lift ramp-door to close access to a castle
• gate swinging gate
• bump_gate a type of gate that is self-closing and allows vehicles to open it by running into it.
• hampshire_gate a type of agricultural gate formed from a section of wire fence which can be removed temporarily
• kissing_gate a type of gate that prevents access for livestock and/or bicycles
• lift_gate bar that raises, automatically or manually
• porticullis metal door that raises, to open-close a castle or city gate
• sally_port a type of gate that consists in two doors, you have to pass and close the first one in order to open the next one
• spikes severe tire damage! if not used in the right direction
• stile stairs over a fence
• toll_booth
• border_control
• entrance an interruption in the barrier
• cycle_barrier (Yes, this *is* a barrier, not a traffic calming. In fact, *every* barrier is also a traffic calming(when it's possible to pass it), while the opposite is not true. Please stop moving it to traffic_calming.)

not barriers

• ford use highway=ford or ford=*
• gatehouse use building=gatehouse

Representation

Current/interim

Example of current rendering styles.

Tag	Type	Sample Location	OsmaRender/t@h	Mapnik
barrier=bollard		51.75419°N 1.2577°W		(none)

Generally a red dot covers all. in the center of the way, as image above

Linear

• 1 bollard
• 2 hedge
• 3 fence
• 4 wall
• 5 retaining_wall (behaves same as cliff) no crossing as left-right are different heigh.
  Lower side on right side of way direction, marked with dots.
• 6 city_wall (behaves same as cliff) no crossing as left-right are different heigh.
  Lower side on right side of way direction, marked with dots.
• 7 city_wall (two_sided=yes) both sides same heigh, marked with dots on both sides.

Node

Possible render for types of barriers:

• 1 block
• 2 bollard
• 3 bus_trap
• 4 cattle_grid
• 5 drawbridge
• 6 ford
• 7 gate
• 8 bump_gate
• 9 hampshire_gate
• 10 kissing_gate
• 11 lift_gate
• 12 porticullis
• 13 sally_port
• 14 spikes
• 15 stile
• 16 entrance
• 17 chain

Deprecates

existing

• highway=gate > to barrier=gate (17,000 + uses in Europe according to Tagwatch)
• highway=stile > to barrier=stile (~2500 uses)
• highway=cattle_grid > to barrier=cattle_grid (~500 uses)
• highway=toll_booth > to barrier=toll_booth (~250 uses)

proposals

• city_wall=* > to barrier=city_wall
• amenity=border_control > to barrier=border_control (25 uses)
• structures=* > deprecate (steal) values that are "barriers" (Inactive, last edit December 2007)
• *=checkpoint (Inactive, last meaningful edit January 2008) (not used)
• natural=hedge > to barrier=hedge (Inactive, last edit May 2008) (90 uses)
• man_made=stone_wall > to barrier=stone_wall or barrier=wall;type=_____ (proposed October 2008)

used

• highway=bollard > to barrier=bollard (943 in tagwatch EU)

Comments

Access rights

By default, a barrier is considered to block all traffic on a way. Access restrictions can be used where necessary to allow certain types of traffic.

A bollard which allows bicycles and pedestrians:

barrier=bollard,bicycle=yes,foot=yes

A one-way exit

barrier=spikes,foot=yes,oneway=yes

An operator=* tag may be used to indicate who operates the barrier (e.g. who has keys to a locked gate)

Entrances

When a way (highway, rail...) crosses a linear barrier is understood that there is an entrance (hole) in the linear barrier, unless the node is tagged with the proper barrier node tag (eg. barrier=gate).

To tag an entrance (hole) in the linear barrier that is not crossed by a way, then tag the node as barrier=entrance.

Discussion

Please use the talk page.

Voting

place your vote here:

• I approve this proposal. Definition of sides for retaining_wall and city_wall are missing. Guessing that left should be perpendicular and right should be soft to allow simple conversion from building outer shape deleting the inner shape. Also permanent flood prevention barrier may be covered by "barrier" tag (actually it may be wall, symmetric or asymmetric bank, or perpendicular embankment). -- utx 19:33, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

• As said, behaves same as cliff, Left of way direction is higher. If two sides same heigh, then tag "two_sided=yes"

• I approve this proposal. --Sergionaranja 11:20, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Zottel 11:35, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Cbm 11:42, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --sadam 11:49, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Xav 11:55, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
• I oppose this proposal. -- TomH 11:57, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. studerap 12:04, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. -- Jannis 12:05, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. Proposition to automatically correct the existing one ? Sletuffe 12:16, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. -- kn0t 13:25, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. -- Chillly 12:30, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. Perhaps add also a mention about deprecating highway=bollard (943 in tagwatch EU) -- Pieren 12:38, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

you are right i´ll mention it up there, even it does not seem to be an aproved tag such as highway=bollard

• I approve this proposal. Circeus 13:51, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. Trs998 17:08, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Grille Chompa 20:24, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Vrabcak 20:59, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Simone 23:58, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal.--Walley 04:12, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Corso 10:50, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Tony Rotondas 12:57, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --MikeCollinson 18:02, 17 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Riechfield 09:10, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Bobkare 14:54, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
• I approve this proposal. --Sward 20:32, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
• late Approve: What happened to =squeeze for the multitude of cycle/motorcycle; do these need switching to traffic_calming=chicane). --Sladen 20:43, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
  • It was felt it belonged at traffic_calming, since it's also a traffic_calming for those vehicles. As I pointed out, it's something that cannot be entirely satisfactory, but nothing prevents you from using barrier=chicane if you really prefer it. Circeus 23:48, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

Good idea to use barrier=chicane I think, because in most cases I know it is meant to keep out cyclists but not only to slow them down. BTW: barrier=block can be a traffic_calming=chicane as well - right? --nkbre 22:15, 19 November 2008 (UTC)

Barrier blocks are meant for those massive cement/concrete blocks that are usually meant for "temporary" barriers, and can only be moved with heavy machinery. They would be unlikely to be used to make chicanes (at least what I am used to see as blocks). Circeus 19:07, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

I commented it some weeks ago at Talk:Approved_features/barriers#Final_RFC...

bollards and a chicane, there a cycle can pass slowly, have the same effect: total barrier for motor cars, might be barrier for some special (wider) cycles, calming for normal cycles. bollard is barrier, why this sort of chicane should be traffic_calming, not barrier? The example linked at talk is really something for traffic_calming, but the chicane discussed here ("Umlaufgitter", zigzag, ...) is smetheing different --Mueck 15:28, 21 November 2008 (UTC)