The name and definition is drawn from an long-existing definition lifted straight off the 1970 definition used by other parties, and was never meant as a troll value but as an alternate definition. In the simplest term (1 line of mandatory definition), it describes service ways linking from main roads to offstreet area.
- A driveway is a minor service road providing access from the highway to an offstreet area used for driving, servicing, parking, or otherwise accommodating motor vehicles. << Mandatory Clause
This includes other service ways and in particular parking areas. All of the ways quoted above are verifiable to the definition. This is in contrast to service=driveway which has 8 lines of mandatory clauses.
- A driveway is a minor service road leading to a specific property. ← Mandatory Clause
- Driveway will typically lead to residence or business but may lead also to research institute, court, military installation, construction site or an abandoned property. ← Mandatory Exclusion Clause (other properties do not apply)
- Use this tag on ways in conjunction with highway=service on a driveway, especially in any of the following scenarios: ← Mandatory Clause
- Primarily provides direct access to a house, garage, or carport; a small number of parking spots may be available for occupants ← Mandatory Clause that contradicts with first Clause
- Primarily provides space for picking up and dropping off passengers – also use covered=yes if it passes under a porte-cochère ← Mandatory Clause
- Leads to a loading dock (amenity=loading_dock) or dumpster (amenity=waste_disposal), potentially from a parking lot – however, service=alley may be more appropriate in some cases ← Mandatory Clause
- When not to use service=driveway tag: ← Mandatory Exclusion Clause
- Paths in or around a parking lot (amenity=parking) are tagged with highway=service without service=* on the entrance and exit ways, as well as any way that forms the “trunk” or perimeter of the lot, connecting multiple parking aisles (service=parking_aisle). ← Mandatory Exclusion Clause with no rational nor basis behind clause, and is not prescriptive
The delibrately confusing part only comes in because there are objections to generalising the service=driveway entry by removing specific problematic clauses. However, both definition (A) and definition (B) are driveways.
@JaLooooNz
driveway2is quite misleading and non-explanatory name and should be replaced with something else. Do you have good use case that can’t be achieved using otherservice=*tags, primarily with=parkingand=driveway? After that we can try figure out better name for this feature.
What you and a few others are trying to state is that there is objection to two tags having a similar namespace (service=driveway and service=driveway2), but different definitions. I think the proper term for this is naming confusion but disagree that it is misleading / confusing / non-explanatory.
I would just like to highlight the following use cases that there are various gaps that cannot be covered in the existing proposals, which is covered under “Service ways linking to offstreet area”…
Specific examples includes…
- Service ways that forms perimeter of parking lot (as per today, it must be left un-tagged as required by service=driveway) ← Definition problem in service=driveway
- Service ways leading to parking areas
- service=parking can address this case to a certain extent
- Offstreet areas that are not covered by service=driveway ← Definition problem in service=driveway that is valid only for selected types of property
- i.e. service ways linking to park / recreation area / industrial areas, and any other offstreet areas not in that list.
- Service way linking to other service ways or a batch of properties ← Definition problem in service=driveway that is valid for access to ONE property
- This is a common occurrence in rural areas whereby the same service road services multiple properties
- Service way only for the purpose of driving
- i.e. driving school that was also highlighted previously
- i.e. tourism / theme park area for driving only
- Avoiding highway=service without service=* tag - allow the preceding condition to indicate that service way is not yet classified
Given the apparent vagueness of the usage (which is so complex that it must be hidden behind enough obfuscating text that you could paper a wall with it) it is probably trying to cover too much and should really be two or three different concisely defined values.
The tag is precise if you consider just the sentence definition, ignoring the comparisons which others demanded to know the “difference”. The “obfuscating text” is meant as comparison and contrast to other existing tag definitions, which is not really required if the definition is analysed standalone.