Effect of oneway on pedestrians?

How to tag oneway rules for pedestrians?

Normaly the oneway=yes only effects vehicles. (eg. highway=residential oneway=yes)
How to tag oneway for pedestians?
with an explict oneway:foot=yes?

What is the result of:
highway=footway oneway=yes (oneway for pedestrians or not?)
highway=path oneway=yes (oneway for all or only for vehicle)
highway=pedestrian oneway=yes (oneway also for pedestians or only for vehicle)
sidewalk:right:oneway=yes (oneway also for pedestians or only for vehicle)

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How to tag oneway rules for pedestrians?

Normaly the oneway=yes only effects vehicles. (eg. highway=residential oneway=yes)
How to tag oneway for pedestians?
with an explict oneway:foot=yes?

it is written in the wiki, foot:forward=no (or similar)

What is the result of:
highway=footway oneway=yes (oneway for pedestrians or not?)

not for pedestrians

highway=path oneway=yes (oneway for all or only for vehicle)

only for vehicle

highway=pedestrian oneway=yes (oneway also for pedestians or only for vehicle)

vehicle only, typical situation with not so large pedestrian streets

sidewalk:right:oneway=yes (oneway also for pedestians or only for vehicle)

only for vehicles

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o.k. found it here https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:foot:backward

foot:backward=* and its counterpart foot:forward=* are used by some mappers to indicate a feature can only be used in one direction by pedestrians. In the past, some mappers have used oneway=yes for this purpose, but it goes against the definition of the oneway-tag which applies only to vehicles. Therefore also the tag oneway:foot=yes should be avoided (because a subtag should not contradict the main tag).

and also here Key:oneway - OpenStreetMap Wiki

That also means, that all the oneway:bicycle on cycle/footways can be replaced by a simple oneway

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on the other hand: foot:forward and foot:backward contradicts the rule to not use forward/backward for oneway things.

never heard of this rule, generally forward and backward are always referring to a specific direction

O.k. I remembered not fully correct on this: “Do not use access-tags to specify exceptions to oneway-tags. Exceptions to oneway-tags must also be specified with oneway-tag.”
But this is only about exeptions

I would expect this to be oneway for all traffic, including foot traffic.

Since pedestrians are not vehicles, oneway=no does not apply to them. You’d have to use foot:backward=no.

And my claim is that applying it so strictly in this context is incorrect and that foot:backward=no tag is extremely ugly.

Which is why some people prefer foot:oneway=no.
But having oneway=no mean something different on a highway=path / highway=footway than on all other highway-types, seems not like something anyone would expect :man_shrugging:

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This was also my first idea, but I think to have different meanings for different highway types would be much more confusing than oneway is strictly for vehicle traffic only.
If one have to prefer foot:backward=no oneway:foot I think is at least worthy of discussion.
Does anyone know of discussions that led to the wiki entry or was that an individual opinion?

IMHO it would be extremely ugly to have “oneway” apply to pedestrians, as it is totally associated with oneway traffic control which is always referring only to vehicular traffic. Traffic law typically doesn’t have measures to restrict the direction of pedestrian traffic

I would not.

I.e. I would expect bare oneway=* tag to only affect vehicles. Especially if it has other tags (e.g. highway=path + bicycle=designated + foot=designated + segregated=yes + oneway=yes would mean to me that only bicycle traffic is oneway, and pedestrians can walk in both ways).

Are there rules like that on the ground? I’ve never seen them yet.

Apparently, some hiking paths are oneways due to their width. The wiki also has an example:


Mandatory oneway direction for pedestrians as a social distancing measure. A prohibitory sign was placed at one end, while at the other end of the path no prohibitory sign was placed.

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I mainly thought of entrances, train stations, airports, etc., where one-way footways may occur.

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also occurs typically with full height turnstiles. Or in the cupola of the German Reichstag (parliament).

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and some hiking trails like Orla Perć - Wikipedia where oneway traffic was introduced due to repeated deadly accidents (over 140 known deaths since being established 112 years ago)

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Another example is the Caminito del Rey, currently tagged oneway:foot = yes: Way: ‪Caminito del Rey‬ (‪669292008‬) | OpenStreetMap

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Let me summarise:
Oneway=* only applies to vehicular traffic.
Therefore oneway:foot should be avoided.
Oneway regulations for pedestrians are recorded as
foot:forward=no or foot:backward=no.

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