|route = hiking|
|A signed hiking Route|
|Used on these elements|
|Status: in use|
|Tools for this tag|
Tagging walking and hiking Route Networks
Foot and hiking routes are named or numbered or otherwise signed walking routes. A route is a customary or regular line of travel, often pre-determined and publicised. It consist of paths taken repeatedly by various people. A foot route is generally a shorter, easier route. A hiking route is generally longer and/or more strenuous.
To tag a foot or hiking route you create a relation with the appropriate tags and add all different ways of the foot/hiking route to this relation. The order of the ways matters. Please see Relation:route#Order matters
Tags of the relation
|type||route||This relation represents a route.|
|route||hiking||route=foot is used for routes which are walkable without any limitations regarding fitness, equipment or weather conditions. As a guideline, you could say that ordinary shoes or trainers (at a pinch, even flip-flops) are adequate for this type of walking trail.
route=hiking is used for routes that rather match Wikipedia's definition: "A long, vigorous walk, usually on trails, in the countryside"). As a guideline, you could say that a hiking trail needs walking shoes or hiking boots because you will encounter sharp rocks and/or heavy undergrowth and/or muddy terrain and/or have to wade through shallow streams.
Don't use route=pilgrimage (almost non-existent). Instead, add pilgrimage=yes to a hiking-route.
|network||iwn||International walking network: long distance paths that cross several countries
National walking network: used for walking routes that are nationally significant and long distance paths
Regional walking network: used for walking routes that cross regions and are regionally significant
Local walking network: used for small local walking routes
|Useful and tags. These tags are not at all required, but can provided additional and valuable information|
|ascent||ascent||The ascent covered by a route in metres. If a route has start and end point at different altitude use descent too|
|colour||a hex triplet||The major colour of the symbol used on the route. Colour code noted in hex triplet format or as CSS/HTML colour name. Example: "#008080" for teal colour in hex triplet, or simply "teal" as a css colour name.|
|descent||descent||The descent covered by a route in metres. Use it only if it differs from the ascent (different altitude at start/endpoint of a route).|
|description||a short description||What is special about this route|
|distance||distance||The distance covered by this route, if known. For information of users and automatic evaluation e.g. of completeness. Given including a unit and with a dot for decimals. (e.g. 12.5 km)|
|educational||yes/no||When the route is Educational trail|
|historic||yes/no||When the route is a historic or heritage trail|
|name||a name||The route is known by this name (e.g., "Westweg")|
|name:code=*||localised name||For adding localized names in different languages, add additional name:code=* tags with a suffix on the name key, where code is a language's ISO code.|
|operator||operator name||The route is operated by this authority/company etc. e.g. "Schwarzwaldverein", "Alpenverein"|
|osmc:symbol||*||Represents the symbol used on the route. Some renderers uses the osmc:symbol=* to indicate a route on the map.|
|ref||a reference||The route is known by this reference (e.g. "E1"). Node network routes use ref=mm-nn where mm and nn are the node reference numbers.|
|roundtrip||yes/no||Use roundtrip=no to indicate that a route goes from A to B and instead of being circular (roundtrip=yes).|
|signed_direction||yes/no||Use signed_direction=yes to indicate that the route is to be walked in only one direction, according to the signposts on the ground. The ways within the relation should be ordered, as they are used to determine the direction of the signposts.|
|state||alternate||Sometimes routes may not be permanent or may be in a proposed state. See also the life cycle tags for this usage.|
|survey:date||yyyy-mm-dd||Date of the most recent survey|
|symbol||symbol description||Consider using osmc:symbol=* instead. Describes the symbol that is used to mark the way along the route, e.g., "Red cross on white background" for the "Frankenweg" in Franconia, Germany|
|website||*||Website that describes the route|
|wikipedia||language:page title||Wikipedia page that describes the route|
Elements of a relation
Routes consist of ways that mark where it leads. For hiking and walking relations it will by typically primarily highway=path, highway=footway, highway=track, highway=steps with some highway=cycleway, highway=service, highway=residential. Sometimes also highway=unclassified and other roads higher in road importance will appear.
A route relation may have one or more ways as elements. A route relation can also have other route relations as elements, called parent relation containing child relations or super relations.
Some mappers also add nodes as relation members, e.g. for major guideposts on the route.
Most of the time, elements will be added with an empty role. For recreational route relations, a basic functional role set has been approved, see Roles for recreational route relations. The approved roles are: main, alternative, approach, excursion, and connection. When no role is set, main is assumed. The roles are applicable to way members and relation members.
|None or main||The role value for the main section(s) of a signposted or in any way waymarked route.|
|alternative||A signposted or otherwise waymarked alternative branching off then rejoining the main route at a significantly different point. The alternative is used instead of a section of the main route.|
|excursion||A signposted or otherwise waymarked side track which rejoins the main track at or close to the same point where it left, e.g. to visit a place of interest. The excursion is an optional addition to the main route.|
|approach||Signposted or otherwise waymarked access route to or from transport infrastructure e.g. parking, train station, bus station, cable car. An approach is used in addition to the main route.|
|connection||Signposted or otherwise waymarked link route from one recreational route to another recreational route and vice versa. A connection is used to switch from one route to another. Note that an approach might act as a connection, e.g. when it ends/begins at a major train station where other routes also pass through. In that case, use the role approach.|
Given this definition, the connection should appear in both routes involved.
|guidepost||A guidepost with directions regarding the path in question.|
(the above table is a template, you can edit it directly via this link)
Hiking routes are rendered for selected areas in Germany in a Hiking and Trail riding map (german). The tags required for rendering are:
- name=* Meaningful route name suitable for identifying this route.
- symbol=* Verbal description of the route marker symbols.
- osmc:symbol=* Coded description of the route marker symbols.
Since the tagging is generic, it is up to each country to decide how to map the hiking networks that exist in their country onto the hierarchy of national/regional/local. For countries with no specific local/regional/national "walking network", it may be helpful to consider whether different trails are managed or funded by government bodies at different levels.
See also Walking Routes.
Hiking trails that cross or touch normal roads should be connected to the road ways on the map. This will allow mixed routing applications to be built on OSM.
There are numerous ways how signed hiking routes may be marked in the terrain. It includes
- paint blazes on trees/rocks/buildings/etc
- signs / special traffic signs
- information boards
- markings by cutting on trees
- wooden poles
all these methods and many others may be used to mark a trail. As long as a hiking route is signed, it can be mapped in OSM.
Tagged objects distribution
Possible technical mistagging
The attribute route=hiking tagged on node or way (& & ) elements is a possible technical mistagging.
- It's preferred not to use oneway=yes anymore, as it could cause confusion with oneway=* as a legal restriction. See discussion on tagging mailinglist.