Proposal:Hitchhiking
| Tag:highway=hitchhiking | |
|---|---|
| Proposal status: | Voting (under way) |
| Proposed by: | Tillwenke |
| Tagging: | highway=hitchhiking |
| Applies to: | 
|
| Definition: | A place, that is intended for hitchhiking. Similar to a bus stop. The place will be marked with e.g. a sign or a bench. |
| Statistics: |
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| Rendered as: | Not to be rendered. [a possible/future rendering could be: a hitchhiker thumb] |
| Draft started: | 2008-02-01 |
| Proposed on: | 2025-03-26 |
| Vote start: | 2025-04-09 00:00:00 (UTC) |
| Vote end: | 2025-04-22 23:59:59 (UTC) |
Proposal
The hitchwiki community would appreciate having a place-tag for hitchhiking places. If someone preferes this kind of travelling, they can find official places on openstreetmap.
Hitchhiking is a means of transportation that is being characterized by the following:
- free
- spontaneous thus uncertain
- with strangers
Those principles should not be in question and not necessary to explain at the tagged place.
https://hitchmap.com/ already provides such spots where one can hitchhike. Most of them are unofficial spots thus they are impossible to map. On hitchmap.com, no difference is made between official/unofficial spots. For similar applications it would be powerful to provide a unified, world-wide source of truth of official hitchhiking spots and thus a common mapping format. It is not intended to upload information collected from such application to openstreetmap. On the other hand it should be very much encouraged that those applications make use of the collection of verifiable spots that already exists and is going to grow on openstreetmap.
Only allow this tag where hitchhiking is legal. This might come down to country or kind of road level.
What is intended to be mapped?
- labelled hitchhinking benches; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ride-sharing_bench
- hitchhiking stations with a sign
- parking lots that were also explicitly designed for what is described above as the principles of hitchhinking and signed as such
The rational behind such official hitchhiking spots is that many smaller towns and villages in rural areas with sparse bus service have started to put up "hitchhiking benches" for people who don’t own a car and look for a lift to a nearby destination, e.g. the nearest town. Car drivers may pull over and pick them up from that bench. For the disabled or elderly, waiting on a bench is comfortable while thumbing on the roadside might be impossible. Another plus is local drivers knowing those places so they may have a look if there’s anybody to offer a lift to when going off to town.
What is not intended to be mapped?
- spots that are frequently used by hitchhikers but are informal in the way that they cannot be verified (see above) e.g. a grass verge next to an on-ramp
Tagging
The main tag should be highway=hitchhiking. The use of highway=* makes sense because this feature is mainly a usage of the road network, like highway=bus_stop for example. It is the most common way to map such places in OSM at the moment but there is no corresponding RFC.
This tag is already used by Rezo Pouce spots, see https://overpass-turbo.eu/?w=%22highway%22%3D%22hitchhiking%22+global&R.
Further tags:
- destination=A-town;B-dale;C-ington Suggested destinations might be given on flip signs
- bench=* 'yes' if a bench for riders to sit on is present at the stop - especially if it is a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ride-sharing_bench.
- shelter=*
- covered=*
- ref=* if there’s an identifier given
- name=*
- operator=* Maintainer of bench, might be local welfare associations or civil councils
- bin=*
- lit=*
- pole=*
Existing examples of tagged nodes:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/4952168954#map=19/50.126354/8.123386
https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/12713504585
https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/12646482632#map=19/44.464992/2.556718
Alternative Tagging Ideas
1.
- hitchhiking=local → to mark often used hitch-hiking spots by the local hitch-hiking community - mostly used in Germany at the moment but not following a standard (https://overpass-turbo.eu/?w=%22hitchhiking%22%3D%22local%22+global&R)
- highway=hitchhiking_bench → see https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=User:Kreuzschnabel/Proposed_features:Hitchhiking_bench - but too narrow
- highway=hitchhiking_stop → is more in line with "bus_stop" but not an option as it is not used so far
Ongoing Discussion
- https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/rfc-feature-proposal-tag-proposal-hitchhiking/108126 (this RFC)
- https://forum.openstreetmap.fr/t/des-points-dautostop/18133 (French, affecting the Rezo Pouce stops) → preference for this RFC
- https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/tagging-mitfahrerbank/79190/12 (German) → multiple ideas with no conclusion
- https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/mitfahrerbank-wie-mappen/3864/26 (German) → multiple ideas with no conclusion
- DE talk:Mitfahrbank (German) several hints on the wording Mitfahrbank and how it is used
- FOSSGIS 2025/OSM-Samstag/Ergebnisse#Tagging Proposal hichhiking (Mitfahrbank) (German minutes)
Related
Official hitchhiking benches proposal
Comments
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Voting
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I approve this proposal. Voting yes as the proposal's author. --Tillwenke (talk) 06:23, 9 April 2025 (UTC)- I approve this proposal. --Peter Elderson (talk) 06:47, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
- I approve this proposal. --Vinber (talk) 06:52, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
- I approve this proposal. --Apitux (talk) 07:14, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
- I approve this proposal. —- Dieterdreist (talk) 07:25, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
- I approve this proposal. --Benoitdd (talk) 07:43, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
- I approve this proposal. --Tomas J (talk) 08:15, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
I have comments but abstain from voting on this proposal. The proposal lacks a clear distinction from amenity=car_pooling. --Discostu36 (talk) 08:19, 9 April 2025 (UTC)- I approve this proposal. --HirschKauz (talk) 08:26, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
- I approve this proposal. --Adam Renak (talk) 09:15, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
- I approve this proposal. --DwarfNebula (talk) 11:04, 9 April 2025 (UTC)
- I approve this proposal. --Lumikeiju (talk) 17:51, 9 April 2025 (UTC)