Best way to tag a path with many spread out steps

Help and support Tagging help & support
1

Hi all,

Presumably quite a common occurrence, but unsure on the best approach.

I recently walked a path from a headland (~70m elevation) down to a beach (0m elevation).

It is a winding, and in places steep, path which has had steps built into it in various places. However, these steps are sometimes quite spread out and, certainly, there is no uniform distance between the steps.

An example section with a higher density of steps is just about visible here (look for the darker orthogonal lines).

So how’s best to tag? Obviously we can split the way, but is there a maximum separation distance for individual steps to be classified as one section of highway=steps? What is the minimum number of steps, i.e., how do we tag a single step?

Also, if it’s not clear exactly where the steps are from imagery (and I didn’t record each step’s GPS location), is there a way to say “there are steps on this path but I can’t map exactly where”? I’m thinking this might still be useful for routers? Or should I just put a set of steps in somewhere (best estimate) on the route as that will likely mean a router still considers steps on this route?

Thanks!

Edit: just seen @Mateusz_Konieczny asked something similar on the wiki back in 2017!

3 Likes
2

higway=steps fixme=there are steps here but not along entire way, splitting it may be better

highway=steps on entire one, split into parts and switch between =steps and not-steps, map just one section of steps at least to warn routers?

Depends on distance between steps, how much time you have and quality of notes.

1 Like
3

I have added steps=yes to the footpath tag before, but don’t know what that does for routers?

1 Like
4

At some point we should introduce a barrier=step, considering the issue you’d get with highway=steps; step_count=1 (because the step doesn’t start anywhere in that situation). The closest example we have so far is barrier=kerb but isn’t applicable everywhere, considering kerbs are usually parallel along a way while a step is something encounter perpendicularly.

1 Like
5

Thanks all.

I’ve split the path in a couple of places and added highway=steps. That should hopefully be enough to warn a router even if each step isn’t mapped and even though the steps are not uniform in distance (so definitely not a staircase).

It turns out, barrier=step is documented with 870 uses (as of now). I think that’s suitable for use!

1 Like
6

I use flat_steps=yes on highway=steps (split the path and make it steps where they are).
There is also barrier=step for a single step https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/tags/barrier=step#overview

7

Okay, I didn’t know that, especially because there’s no support in both iD and JOSM and also is obscurely documented on the wiki (most notable exception in highway=steps).
Which is why I’ve added links to them in highway=steps and barrier=kerb.