Tag:traffic calming=island

A traffic island is a structure separating at least two lanes of a highway for a short distance^[1]. The width of the island is usually under a few meters. The island doesn't necessarily have to have a right-of-way indicator. Traffic islands can also appear at the center of junctions or traffic lights, but then the roadway around them should also be drawn as a circular way tagged with junction=circular or junction=roundabout.

Note that as of mid April 2023, only about 3% of pedestrian crossings with pedestrian refuges (crossing:island=yes or the deprecated crossing=island) are also tagged with traffic_calming=island. So as a data consumer, if you are looking for all traffic islands, you should look for crossings with the tags mentioned, too.

How to map

For an island between two lanes of a carriageway, either:

• put a traffic_calming=island node at the island,
• split the way at the ends of the island, and add traffic_calming=island to the middle segment, or
• split the carriageway into parallel lanes, marked oneway=yes as appropriate, and draw the island as an area between them.

For islands at the center of intersections, draw a circular way around the island, as described by Tag:junction=roundabout#How_to_map, and tag the way with junction=circular or junction=roundabout depending on how traffic yields. Optionally, also draw the traffic-calming island as a node or area inside the circle. Routing software should treat such small circular junctions the same as normal intersections.

Tags to use in combination

For traffic islands drawn as an area :

• surface=* – Surface of the traffic island, e.g. asphalt
• landuse=grass – For traffic islands covered with grass (other landuse=* or natural=* types may also occur, e.g. landuse=greenery or natural=shrubbery)
• barrier=kerb + kerb=* – For solid traffic islands

Rendering

• One possible rendering may be as a small hollow dot in the middle of a node, or a small hollow line in the middle of a way. When creating software, these choices are yours.
• None, currently, by the osm-carto layer.
• iD-Editor: Example-object

See also

• crossing:island=* – Specifies whether a pedestrian crossing has a refuge island
• highway=mini_roundabout – A road junction where the traffic goes around a painted circle or traversable island and has right of way.
• traffic_calming=painted_island – An island painted on a road
• Proposals:
  • area:highway=traffic_island is mentioned in a 2011 inactive proposal.
  • The proposal landuse=traffic_island for a pedestrian refuge on roads was abandoned.

Weblinks

• Traffic island on Wikipedia

Notes