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Hi, I want to map a fence separating a stretch of railroad tracks from a bike road. The fence is definitely property of the railroad company. It runs below the embankment and right along the road (no distance to the road but several meters to the tracks). There are some locked gates (maintenance access) in the fence that I'd want to add. Can I map the fence as a barrier along the road and where would a gate show up in a router? Would it be interpreted as a gate blocking the road? Alternatively, do I need to add it as a separate line object?

asked 07 Jan '20, 20:47

UliFR's gravatar image

UliFR
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accept rate: 0%

Ok, separated the fence. Thanks

(26 Jan '20, 14:37) UliFR

Certainly do not add barrier=fence to the existing highway this is likely to cause at least some routing engines to treat the road as impassable.

As others have said add the fence parallel to the road. You can add the gates as ways or points, but probably only the latter get shown on the standard CartoCSS render. If the gates are on potentially routable roads (e.g. service roads) it may be better to use nodes for now.

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answered 08 Jan '20, 10:43

SK53's gravatar image

SK53 ♦
28.1k48268433
accept rate: 22%

There is no problem that I can think of in mapping the fence. With respect to gates, I'd probably try to map them as short ways if I could do so accurately. If I couldn't (not being able to see them clearly in imagery, lack of accurate on the ground survey, etc.) then I'd map them as points.

There may be renderers that incorrectly orient their gate icons if they are mapped as points near a road. I know my renderer would do this wrong. If there is any evidence of a service roads or tracks, even just a few meters long, that go through the gate(s) that could assist the rendering as well as being accurate mapping.

But you shouldn't worry about if they will be rendered properly, just that they are mapped accurately. Map the fence where the fence is. Map the locations of gates with ways showing the length of each gate if possible. But if not possible, just use barrier nodes/points.

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answered 07 Jan '20, 22:40

n76's gravatar image

n76
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accept rate: 17%

4

to be super clear: the road and the fence are 2 separate OSM-ways. Do not add the barrier=fence tag to the highway=xxx-tagged way.

(08 Jan '20, 04:00) escada

escada is correct and my answer was unclear on this. Thank you for the update/clarification!

(08 Jan '20, 05:10) n76

Thanks, so I need the extra fence object. Is that a general rule that one should not to add barrier=fence tags to highways or is this only because of the gate problem I raised?

(08 Jan '20, 08:08) UliFR
4

It is best practice to map one real life feature by one OSM object each.

In this specific case mapping raod and fence on the same line would be ambiguous: Is the fence on the left side of the road, on the right? Or is it a barrier on the road itself stopping traffic? Or a divider between the lanes?

(08 Jan '20, 08:18) TZorn
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question asked: 07 Jan '20, 20:47

question was seen: 1,326 times

last updated: 26 Jan '20, 14:38

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum