How to tag that some ways will be inaccessible from 3 Aug 2026 till 30 June 2027

Help and support
1

A couple of ways will be closed for works commencing 3 aug’26 ending 30 jun’27 - or earlier or later, as happens to be the case; would like to tag these ways on OSM;

The poster is a cyclist who notes things that can be added / need to be amended / are no longer so, the cyclist is not an avid computer user, spent more than enough years sitting at a desk, is now finally free to roam;

That cyclist thinks, having read various OSM wiki pages, that the answer will eventually look like:
access=conditional
conditional=yes @ up-to 2026 aug 03 ; from 2027 jul 01

In this instance it is not sufficient to be able to read the wiki, one needs to understand, starting with pages like osm>wiki>opening-hours and osm>wiki>start-date, then branching out: that much is easy-peasy high school stuff from the pre-digital era;

And in case you wondered: this cyclist is not at all interested in learning how to decode hundreds of lines in the wiki - my remaining lifespan is just too short.

All that is needed is/ are cut-and -paste line(s) to add, with the correct tags, likely along the lines as included above, to the ways concerned.

Having spent about an hour reading and following links think there are various ways to do this:
1/ access=no, and hope someone will remember to look in July 2027
2/ highway=construction with expected end date of the construction on 30 June 2027
3/ conditional access - two options:
3a/ access=no 2026-08-03 - 2027-07-01
3b/ access=yes @ till 2026 aug 02 ; from 2027 jul 01

Advantage of 1/ is that it will not show up on the map, thus design consultants who wish to copy/paste a section of the map can incorporate this w/o showing a condition which will only exist for 11 months

advantage of 2/ is that it will be patently obvious - even to casual users - that something is diferent, but it will need to be followed up on site, first to make sure the works have actually finished on 30 June, and to see whether the reconstructed levee with ways conforms to the previous layout

advantage of 3/ is that routers will only start to divert users from this cycleway/ footpath on 3 August, and again include the ways in planned tours from 1 July 2027 onwards, same follow up needed as with 2/, to ensure works actually completed and re-instated ways are where they were.
advantage of 3b/ over 3a/ is that, while some routers are possibly not sufficiently advanced to evaluate conditional access, at least from 1 July 2027 onwards, or ‘till the end of times’ (or till someone views those ways) users will not be needlessly diverted.

Questions:
1/ OSM wiki : start-date and opening-hours do not clarify how to format year month day : would it be 2027 aug 03 or 2027-08-03?

2/ how to separate the start and end dates: dash of semicolon: 2027-08-03-2027-07-01 seems confusing, thus : 2026 aug 03-2027 jul 01?

3/ feel the eventual answer will look like:
access=conditional
conditional=yes @ up-to 2026 aug 03 ; from 2027 jul 01

Looking forward, both to a reply to these questions, and to an improved wiki page with this usage case included - perhaps with its own sub-heading,

2

not looked at other aspects, including syntax of conditional restrictions but see Conditional restrictions - OpenStreetMap Wiki

these go into

access:conditional=no 2026-08-03 - 2027-07-01
access:conditional=yes @ till 2026 aug 02 ; from 2027 jul 01

access= would continue having value, and not =conditional

for this highway=construction is not special at all

personally I would use highway=construction in such cases

3

Dear Mateusz,

Thank you, first for starting to answer the question, but also for promptly replying.

However, I’m not a mathematical person, nor a computer-lover; prefer to go out on bicycle or on foot; therefore asked for specific lines to enter as tags to the ways concerned; the reply leaves several open questions.

Questions:

1/ is ‘till’ the correct way to specify the end date before the interruption?

1a/ or could one take the second part of a date pair - with or without the dash?

2/ is ‘from’ the correct way to specify the starting date after the interruption?

2a/ or could one take the first part of a date pair - with or without the dash?

3/ should there be brackets around the date / time period - they do appear in some example?

Making either

3a/ access=no (2026 aug 03-2027 aug 01) or

3b/ access=yes @ -2026 aug 02 ; 2027 jul 01- - with or without (), and with or without a space between the first date and the semi-colon, please
3b/ access=yes @ (-2026 aug 02); (2027 jul 01-) ?

Could of course write out all combinations, amend say once every ten days till eventually the three built-in (in iD) route planners plus my favourite bikerouter.de correctly exclude the ways.

But it would also be helpful if the correct syntax were included on Conditional restrictions - OpenStreetMap Wiki and on Key:opening_hours - OpenStreetMap Wiki

= = =

As to tagging as ‘construction’: this is frowned on in the Belgian Matrix community as the works will only be temporary, thus should not be used for any works which will take less than 6 months (that is the average time between people downloading offline maps to their devices);

also, it doesn’t concern a brand new way where there was no way previously - which is another Belgian convention - or at least was at some point;

it also, most importantly, -at least in routers like bikerouter.de- thwarts my ability to include the way in an itinerary to check&confirm progress - although there is a way around that, which is what makes it my current go-to option.

= = =

The result of the quick but (at least to me) incomplete answer is wasted time which could have been spent - for example viewing surface (-quality) or lighting on ways recently travelled, that is unfortunate, and does not entice me to spend more hours at the computer or with a mobile device, for example completing a friend’s work in moving artwork in a local museum garden - far from.

With as ever kind regards, an in awe of the amount of effort -and undoubtedly time- you spend on QnA in OSM,

Hans

4

From your list, I’d fo with (1) or (2), and set a personal reminder to check after 11 months whether it has opened yet.

5

Intermediate report:

A week after adding tag access:conditional=no @ (2026 Aug 02-2027 Jul 01), OSRM and Graphhopper still route cyclists and pedestrians over the closed ways, Valhalla throws up its arms in a ‘trek uw plan’-like gesture (Flemish way of saying “I don’t know, please go figure out something yourself”; bikerouter.de (based on brouter.de/web) also doesn’t take the restriction into account - even though later edits are incorporated.

linking Wieder mal: temporäre Wegsperrung mappen? - #13 by flohoff , where in Milet in post 14/50 confirms that for instance Graphopper only applies the restriction to motor vehicle routing, but not to pedestrians and cyclists.

= = =

Thus intermediate “best reply” is by @SomeoneElse , with either access=no (relies on the mapper keeping track of such temporary access restrictions), or -therefore, at least in my view, preferred- highway=construction, as this will highlight the ways to be looked at in due course;

not known what adding the expected re-opening date will accomplish, added it anyhow;

in addition, adding a note with the request to keep the note open till in this case July 2027 gives a visible indication that something will need to be done.

= = =

Have now prefixed to access tag with ‘was:’, added highway=construction to make was:highway=footpath + highway=construction, and of course added the expected re-opening date;

this looks like it will require the least typing when reopening.

Thanks to all who viewed, and the few who contributed.

6

yes, currently conditional restrictions are basically never supported

7

@Mateusz_Konieczny

One aspect of highway=construction is that the red-while block motif stands out clearly in iD, thus attracts attention, and with a bit of luck there might even be some kind of reminder at the expected completion date. That’s all there is to my preference.

Met als immer vriendelijke groet (Dutch for 'with as always friendly greeting),