How do I tag a toucan (pedestrian + bike) crossing?

Question

A toucan crossing is a road crossing where pedestrians and bikes can cross together (typically used to cross a road between two segregated cycle paths).

The OSM Wiki for "crossing" states that I can either use:

highway=crossing
crossing=traffic_signals
bicycle=yes
segregated=no
crossing_ref=toucan

Or the "UK shortcut":

crossing=toucan

However the crossing=toucan version doesn't appear on the default Mapnik rendering on the OSM home page so I'm not sure how widely recognised it is (TagInfo suggests there are only around 1000 uses of toucan, compared to 64,000 of traffic_signals).

Despite this the "More Info" link from OpenCycleMap suggests that it only recognises the crossing=toucan version and treats anything else as "Other Crossings". And the OSM information on CycleStreets.net suggests the same thing.

So which should I use? Is one method "better" than the other? Is there any reason that the Mapnik rendering can't recognise the UK shortcut or that OpenCycleMap can't recognise the long version?

Accepted Answer

The basics:

As a minimum, use

highway=crossing
crossing_ref=toucan

Then it depends on whether you expect international application programmers to know what a "toucan crossing" is. If you don't want to rely on their knowledge of UK crossing terminology, you can add the additional tags that you quoted from the wiki.

Controversy: crossing=toucan vs. crossing_ref=toucan:

As you have noted, there is a popular alternative for crossing_ref=toucan, crossing=toucan. It's not obvious which you should choose, but I'll try to summarize the arguments again:

Pro crossing=toucan

historically, crossing=toucan predates crossing_ref=toucan and even the international crossing tags
it is currently documented in the wiki (attempts to change this have been reverted)

Pro crossing_ref=toucan

it is used more frequently (1842 vs. 1071)
crossing=toucan conflicts with tags like crossing=traffic_signals (64,883 uses), crossing_ref toucan can coexist
it is also documented on the wiki (but only as an add-on tag)
JOSM presets use this tag

I would personally encourage the switch to crossing_ref, if for no other reason than allowing the supporters of "UK names" and "explicit subtagging" to peacefully coexist. Using crossing=toucan forces mappers into an avoidable conflict over the value for crossing tags.

Answer 2

4

The JOSM preset for Toucan crossing currently adds the tags

highway=crossing
crossing_ref=toucan

This seems to be a mistake, and as per the wiki and OCM recommendations I would suggest

highway=crossing
crossing=toucan

I wouldn't worry about what does or does not render on the Mapnik rendering too much, as there are too many things mapped for everything to show. If you are concerned though you could suggest an enhancement at trac.openstreetmap.org

permanent link

answered 01 Jul '11, 10:09

EdLoach ♦
19.5k●16●156●280
accept rate: 22%

Yeah I wouldn't normally worry too much about the Mapnik rendering - but crossing=traffic_signals does get rendered, so it's not like the general policy is to avoid rendering crossings for aesthetic reasons.

(01 Jul '11, 10:46) GrahamS

2

I've done a quick search and there is already http://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/3483 suggesting highway=crossing be rendered.

(01 Jul '11, 11:46) EdLoach ♦

How do I tag a toucan (pedestrian + bike) crossing?

The basics:

Controversy: crossing=toucan vs. crossing_ref=toucan:

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