Standard tagging for ski pass (skipass) vending machines

General talk Tagging general discussion
1

Hi all,

Two years ago I proposed introducing vending=ski_pass to tag ski pass vending machines. However, based on feedback in the discussion, particularly the suggestion to avoid adding overly specific vending=* values, I tend to agree that introducing a new value is probably unnecessary, as a ski pass is essentially an admission ticket granting access to ski lifts and pistes. This can already be expressed clearly with established tagging:

amenity=vending_machine
vending=admission_tickets
sport=skiing

This approach:

  • follows the existing vending=* scheme,
  • avoids proliferation of narrowly scoped values,
  • keeps tagging consistent and scalable.

Several ski pass vending machines, particularly those used year-round that dispense not only winter ski passes but also summer single-ride aerialway tickets, are currently tagged as:

vending=public_transport_tickets

However, this does not seem appropriate. According to the Public transport → Cable cars, chair lifts, gondolas, etc. these are usually modelled with aerialway=* and are not part of the public transport tagging schema in typical leisure scenarios. They are often private services available only to customers of recreational facilities. Public transport tagging is intended for services like buses, trams, trains, ferries, etc.

To remove ambiguity, I suggest documenting whatever we agree on as the recommended pattern in the Pistes → Amenities and related sports section of the wiki and closing the original proposal.

Feedback welcome.

[RFC] Feature Proposal: vending=tickets
2

are you sure it extends to admission on the piste? I thought it was about ski lifts and similar alone.

3

While I am sure that you only need it for the lifts here in Switzerland (and probably all of Europe - except for some specially built areas (indoor and near cities)) I am not sure about the rest of the world.

In my ski-area I think (never checked it) you can only buy single-ride tickets in the vending-machines (but this might of course change), and part of the lifts are in fact public-transport. So by now they are perfectly fine as vending=public_transport_tickets.

4

can you also get bus tickets there? How could they be distinguished, by operator? Should we add pt v2-style tags like bus=no, ski=yes?

5

In North America some ski resorts charge a fee just for trail (piste) access. It’s usually much cheaper than a lift ticket though. Here’s an example of a resort selling a nordic, backcountry, & uphill ticket that allows use of all their trails but only via human power (no lift access). Some resorts allow free uphill access to their downhill trails, but only outside of lift operating hours. Some don’t allow it at all. Policies vary from place to place.

1 Like
6

I had a look at the vending-machine today on my way to work (where I use one of the lifts as public-transport).

I was wrong with my assumption that you only get single tickets there, you get the whole range (except season-passes) already now.

But you can just buy tickets for the ski-area, not for other networks like bus or train, so they would (in my case) best be distinguished by operator.