How to indicate access restrictions only for "private cars"?

General talk Tagging general discussion
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I have recently come across an interesting access restriction: “deny all vehicles, but allow private cars”.

The “deny all vehicles” part can be trivially constructed with vehicle=no, but I struggle to come up with appropriate tags for the “allow private cars” part. It seems there is no such defined tag to begin with?

It seems motorcar=* is not too accurate for this; I find it quite ambiguous with e.g. motor_vehicle. And the issue is that it blocks all kinds of non-car vehicles, so it’s gonna be clumsy to do e.g. lgv=no , hgv=no, bus=no, taxi=no, …

As far as I can tell. it’s also not really access=customers because e.g. private cars can drive in and pick up friends and families, which may have nothing to do with the facilities located at the street. It’s also not access=private because it’s a normal public road with no entity to enforce/restrict access.

Any suggestions on what tags to give?

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What definition is “private cars” is being used? Which vehicles are actually being denied? Or maybe it’s easier to answer which vehicles are in practice being targeted by this restriction?

Is a taxi denied? Or is it still allowed if it’s owned by a driver.
Is a motorcycle denied?
Is a rental car denied?
Is a delivery truck denied?
Is a private car making a delivery (e.g. pizza) denied?

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sounds like vehicle=private to the first approximation

to tag in greater detail it would be necessary ti check how car is defined

also, are you really not allowed to drive say small truck when moving? What about maintenance services? Is it really strict car-only ban?

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Can you ask this locally first? “Private car” simply means (personal passenger) cars, which is what motorcar= is for. You didn’t explain what problem you see in it.

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The key passenger_car | Keys | OpenStreetMap Taginfo is in some use, mostly for parking spaces. Are you sure that only passenger cars (i.e. four-wheeled/double-tracked motorised vehicles primarily used for individual/small-scale people transportation) are allowed?

Not exactly. motorcar=no applies to all double-tracked motorised vehicles, while motorcar=yes/motorcar=designated generally applies to passenger cars only. This difference in meaning is a common source of confusion and has been discussed to death in this forum.

Nevermind the fact that many motorcar=no where used with the meaning of motor_vehicle=no in my area (though mostly historical?), but that’s a completely different topic.

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in the case of vehicle classes, it is not about “primarily used for” but rather “registered as”

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In the end, the result is the same here for motor_vehicle=no + motorcar=yes
Personally I consider that interpretation of motorcar=no as incomplete and inaccurate. Those need to be changed to motor_vehicle=no + motorcycle=yes , and eg double_tracked_motor_vehicle= supported. While it’s attempted to be justified from use, ~60% already has motorcycle= , ~33% =yes , suggesting it’s confusing enough or understood as cars. motorcar=no | Tags | OpenStreetMap Taginfo
Throughout time, motorcar= is not listed as parent of other modes. Currently, it’s still “imply the generic class”, not “mean”. Key:access - OpenStreetMap Wiki
Originally, it’s defined as cars, same as English literally. Deprecating car= in =charging_station also suggests motorcar= is understood as cars.

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Right, in my mind they were switched around. It’s confusing.
motorcar=no is more common than yes, designated, and private combined. In addition, only 9% have motor_vehicle= per taginfo, which furthers the idea that it’s been misused as motor_vehicle in the past.
As for whether it’s understood as cars vs double tracked mv, I don’t see how a motorcycle=yes would help with that question.

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It is not possible to know blindly beforehand whether the situation is local-only or actually global. A question has to be asked first, and I reckon it’s a global-level question.

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I’ve never seen a traffic sign that referred to “private” vehicles in particular. It seems like this can’t be discussed without region-specific information.

You might want to post some more information. You said you’re talking about a public road. As such, it should be possible to find more information about the actual legal restriction that is in place (as @Jarek has pointed out). But that would require knowing the region that you’re asking about.

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It has been answered above. “Private car” means car there.

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For sure, though you need to describe your actual problem very precise, so that others can understand what you are talking about.

So what does this actual means in your area of the world. Private in terms of access=private or registered to a private person (like not by a company) or private cars in terms of “a typical car, not a truck/van”…

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I believe @vectorial8192 is asking this in a Hong Kong context. Then, I quote the relevant legislation:

private car means a motor vehicle constructed or adapted for use solely for the carriage of a driver and not more than 7 passengers and their personal effects but does not include an invalid carriage, motor cycle, motor tricycle or taxi

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