Key:maxspeed

maxspeed
Description
Specifies the maximum legal speed limit on a road, railway or waterway.
Group: restrictions
Used on these elements
Useful combination
highway=* railway=* waterway=*
See also
maxspeed:advisory=* maxspeed:conditional=* maxspeed:type=* maxspeed:variable=* minspeed=* source:maxspeed=*
Status: de facto
maxspeed=* More details at taginfo
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The maxspeed=* tag is used on ways to define the maximum legal speed limit for general traffic on a particular road, railway, or waterway. By default, values will be interpreted as kilometers per hour. The speedlimit can be specified in different units if necessary. Those will be added behind the value, separated by a space (see Examples). The tag is also used on nodes to specify maxspeed traffic signs.

Values

The maximum speed limit for a highway=*, railway=rail, waterway=river etc. can be specified as follows:
While the tagging examples are given for linear features, single positions with restrictions can usually be mapped by tagging a node with the same tags.

Type	Example	Meaning
Numeric speed limit	maxspeed=60 maxspeed=50 mph maxspeed=10 knots	The maximum fixed numeric speed limit, followed by the appropriate unit, if not measured in km/h. When the value is in km/h then no unit should be included. For example, maxspeed=60 for 60 km/h and maxspeed=50 mph for 50 mph (note the space between the value and the unit).
Variable speed limit	maxspeed:variable=*	Main article: Key:maxspeed:variable Indicates that a variable maximum speed can be displayed on electronic variable message signs, for reasons indicated in the tag's value. Can be used together with maxspeed=* to indicate the speed limit in the normal situation.
No speed limit	maxspeed=none	Indicates that there is no fixed maximum numeric speed limit for this section of road (on some German autobahns and a very few other places). Not to be used for situations where there is a limit, but it is not known. Where the limit is not known, do not include a maxspeed tag.
Walking speed limit	maxspeed=walk	In Austria and Germany, the speed limit for living street (German: Wohnstraße bzw. Verkehrsberuhigter Bereich) is defined only as being a walking speed, but there is no defined numeric value for this. The maxspeed walk proposal suggests that walk should be used, but it is not commonly used. In Greece, walking speed is mandated for pedestrian streets. Although not enumerated explicitly, it can be inferred to be 8 km/h from the speed limit for electric personal vehicles to be treated as pedestrians. If the law defines a numeric equivalent, that can be used instead. For example, in the Netherlands, walking speed is legally defined as 15 km/h, so one simply uses maxspeed=15 instead of maxspeed=walk.
Implicit speed limit	maxspeed=<countrycode>:<zone type>	In some countries, notably Romania and Russia, it's common to use maxspeed with implicit values. The format includes a country code followed by a ':' and a zone identifier (For example 'RO:urban'). For example it is used in Russia for areas where the speed limit is indicated on the street by use of a symbol or icon rather than a number. This non-numeric notation is used to avoid the correction of an entire country map due to legislation changes regarding maximum speed. Note: Some local communities, prefers to tag the same information in the tag maxspeed:type=* and the tag source:maxspeed=* is also common in some communities. A project wide consens how this information is tagged was not found, yet.

Implicit maxspeed values

Main article: Default speed limits

The maxspeed=* tag may use with context-specific values, such as where a road is unsigned and a "default" maxspeed value in-force by legislation/law applies.

Note: In some communities this information is commonly tagged in source:maxspeed=* or maxspeed:type=*.

Country	ISO country code	Urban		Rural		Miscellaneous		Comment
		source:maxspeed=* or maxspeed:type=* (or maxspeed=*)	Implied or explicit value	source:maxspeed=* or maxspeed:type=* (or maxspeed=*)	Implied or explicit value	source:maxspeed=* or maxspeed:type=* (or maxspeed=*)	Implied or explicit value
Armenia	AR	AR:urban	40	AR:rural	110			—
		AR:urban:primary	60
		AR:urban:secondary	60
Australia	AU	See Australian Tagging Guidelines - Roads
Austria	AT	AT:urban	50	AT:rural	100	AT:bicycle_road	30	—
						AT:trunk	100
						AT:motorway	130
Belarus	BY	BY:urban	60	BY:rural	90	BY:living_street	20	—
						BY:motorway	110
Belgium	BE	BE-VLG:urban	50	BE-VLG:rural	70	BE:living_street	20	BE-VLG: Flanders BE-WAL: Wallonia BE-BRU: Brussels-Capital Region
						BE:cyclestreet	30
		BE-WAL:urban	50	BE-WAL:rural	90	BE:zone30	30
						BE:zone*	* (number)
		BE-BRU:urban	30	BE-BRU:rural	70	BE:trunk	120
						BE:motorway	120
Bulgaria	BG	BG:urban	50	BG:rural	90	BG:living_street	20
						BG:trunk	120
						BG:motorway	140
Canada	CA	CA-AB:urban	50 (most roads), 80 (provincial highways)	CA-AB:rural	80 (most roads) 100 (provincial highways)			CA-AB: Alberta CA-BC: British Columbia CA-MB: Manitoba CA-ON: Ontario CA-QC: Quebec CA-SK: Saskatchewan Speed limits above the statutory defaults may apply. Most provinces and territories have provisions in their traffic laws allowing speed limits higher than the defaults.
		CA-BC:urban	50	CA-BC:rural	80
		CA-MB:urban	50	CA-MB:rural	90
		CA-ON:urban	50	CA-ON:rural	80
		CA-QC:urban	50	CA-QC:rural	80 (paved roads), 70 (unpaved roads)	CA-QC:motorway	100
						CA-SK:nsl	80
Czech Republic (Czechia)	CZ	CZ:urban	50	CZ:rural	90	CZ:pedestrian_zone	20	—
						CZ:living_street	20
						CZ:urban_motorway	80
						CZ:urban_trunk	80
						CZ:trunk	110
						CZ:motorway	130
Denmark	DK	DK:urban	50	DK:rural	80	DK:motorway	130	—
Estonia	EE	EE:urban	50	EE:rural	90			—
Finland	FI	FI:urban	50	FI:rural	80	FI:trunk	100	—
						FI:motorway	120
France	FR	FR:urban	50	FR:rural	80	FR:zone30	30	—
						FR:motorway	130 / 110 (raining)
Germany	DE	DE:urban	none 50 (motor_vehicle)	DE:rural	none 100 (motor_vehicle) 80 (hgv weight > 3.5t, or trailer) 60 (weight > 7.5t)	DE:living_street	walk	Unsigned (implicit) urban and rural speed limits only apply to motor vehicles. 30 instead of 50 in urban areas is currently being discussed. Municipalities may be able to change the default limit for their city in the near future. There is no speed limit for DE:motorway .
						DE:bicycle_road	30
						DE:motorway	none
Great Britain	GB					GB:nsl_restricted	30 mph	GB:nsl_single (60 mph) 50 mph (vehicles towing caravans or trailers, buses and minibuses up to 12m, HGV) GB:nsl_dual (70 mph) 60 mph (vehicles towing caravans or trailers, buses and minibuses up to 12m, HGV GB:motorway (70 mph) 60 mph (vehicles towing caravans or trailers, HGV) This applies to the United Kingdom inclusive of Great Britain as ISO 3166 country codes are preferred. In the UK maxspeed:type=* is preferred over source:maxspeed=* Measured in miles per hour
						GB:motorway	70 mph
						GB:nsl_dual	70 mph
						GB:nsl_single	60 mph
Greece	GR	GR:urban	50	GR:rural	90	GR:living_street	20	—
						GR:trunk	110
						GR:motorway	130
Hungary	HU	HU:urban	50	HU:rural	90	HU:living_street	20	—
						HU:trunk	110
						HU:motorway	130
India	IN	IN:urban	70	IN:rural	70	IN:motorway	120	100 km/h on rural dual carriageways with two or more lanes (e.g. dual-carriageway National Highways)
Indonesia	ID	ID:urban	50	ID:rural	80	ID:residential	30	Minimum speed of 40 km/h on rural roads and 60 km/h on motorways Urban motorways are limited to 80 km/h.
						ID:motorway	100
Italy	IT	IT:urban	50	IT:rural	90	IT:trunk	110	—
						IT:motorway	130
Japan	JP					JP:nsl	60	—
						JP:motorway	100
South Korea	KR	KR:urban	50	KR:rural	60	KR:trunk	80	Where there are 2 or more lanes per direction on expressways or expressway-like roads, the speed limit is 100. Vehicles carrying dangerous goods limited to 90 km/h on expressways.
						KR:motorway	80
Latvia	LT	LT:urban	50	LT:rural	90			—
Norway	NO	NO:urban	50	NO:rural	80			—
Philippines	PH	PH:urban	30	PH:rural	80	PH:motorway	100	Buses and trucks subject to lower speed limits (80 km/h in motorways, 50 km/h in rural areas) Cars and motorcycles in urban areas subject to higher speed limits only in designated through streets or boulevards without blind corners (40 km/h). Places classified as "crowded streets" by local government units, areas close to intersections at blind corners and school zones have a speed limit of 20 km/h regardless of motor vehicle type. Local government units may assign lower speed limits. The Toll Regulatory Board sets the speed limits on expressways ; the general speed limit for expressway is set at 100 (80 for heavy trucks, buses and any vehicle hauling a trailer) unless otherwise posted.
Portugal	PT	PT:urban	50	PT:rural	90	PT:trunk	100	—
						PT:motorway	120
Romania	RO	RO:urban	50	RO:rural	90	RO:trunk	100	—
						RO:motorway	130
Russia	RU	RU:urban	60	RU:rural	90	RU:living_street	20	—
						RU:motorway	110
Serbia	RS	RS:urban	50	RS:rural	80	RS:living_street	10	—
						RS:trunk	100
						RS:motorway	130
Slovakia	SK	SK:urban	50	SK:rural	90	SK:living_street	20	—
						SK:trunk	90
						SK:motorway	130
						SK:motorway_urban	90
Slovenia	SI	SI:urban	50	SI:rural	90	SI:trunk	110	—
						SI:motorway	130
South Africa	ZA	ZA:urban	60	ZA:rural	100	ZA:motorway	120	—
Spain	ES	ES:urban	50	ES:rural	90	ES:living_street	20	Implicit speed in urban areas (ES:urban) can be 50, 30 or 20 km/h depending on the physical properties of the road. 30 km/h on unpaved roads.
						ES:zone30	30
			30			ES:trunk	90
			20			ES:motorway	120
Sweden	SE	SE:urban	50	SE:rural	70			—
Switzerland	CH	CH:urban	50	CH:rural	80	CH:trunk	100	—
						CH:motorway	120
Türkiye	TR	TR:urban	50	TR:rural	90	TR:living_street	20	Note: rarely designated
						TR:zone30	30
						TR:trunk	110
						TR:motorway	120-140	can be either 120 (beltways), 130 (older tollways), or 140 (newer tollways)
Ukraine	UA	UA:urban	50	UA:rural	90	UA:living_street	20	—
						UA:trunk	110
						UA:motorway	130
United Kingdom	UK					UK:motorway	70 mph	Use of "GB:" terminology is preferred as ISO 3166 country codes are used. Measured in miles per hour.
						UK:nsl_dual	70 mph
						UK:nsl_single	60 mph
Uzbekistan	UZ	UZ:urban	70	UZ:rural	100	UZ:living_street	30	—
						UZ:motorway	110

See also Default speed limits for a more complete and machine-readable list of implicit speed limits that also includes speed limits for motor vehicles other than cars and is sourced directly from each country's legislation (with links).

Maxspeed zones

Where the speed limit is indicated by special speed limits signposted at the zone boundaries, they can be tagged as follows:

maxspeed=30
maxspeed:type=DE:zone30

or less commonly with maxspeed=DE:zone:30.

Note: The dedicated key zone:maxspeed=* overlaps with both methods and can be used for this purpose in combination with an explicit maxspeed value, e.g zone:maxspeed=DE:30 and maxspeed=30.

Extended tagging

Vehicles

Where different speed limits are posted for different classes of vehicles, these should be specified using maxspeed:<vehicle>=*. The possible values for <vehicle> correspond to the values for transport modes of the key access=* (see also Examples).

Note: Where a lower blanket speed limit is applied for certain classes of vehicle across all roads within the jurisdiction, then this should not be tagged at the individual road level.

For example:

• maxspeed:hgv=* - applying to "heavy goods vehicles" (=trucks)
• maxspeed:bus=* - applying to buses

Driving direction

Main article: Forward & backward, left & right

Where different speed limits are specified for each driving direction, those can be specified using maxspeed:forward=* resp. maxspeed:backward=*, whereas forward applies to the speed limit for the same direction as the OSM way and backward to the speed limit for the opposite direction.

Lanes

Where different speed limits are specified for each lane of a road, those can be specified using maxspeed:lanes=*. Each lane’s maximum speed has to be separated with the “|” character. The first maximum speed is the maximum speed of the leftmost lane (viewed from the direction of the OSM way), the second maximum speed is the speed of the lane right from the leftmost lane and so on until the rightmost lane. Further, if they should be specified for each driving direction separately the key maxspeed:lanes:forward=* resp. maxspeed:lanes:backward=* can be used, whereas lanes:forward applies to the speed limit of the lanes for the same direction as the OSM way and lanes:backward to the speed limit of the lanes of the opposite direction. See therefore also the Examples as well as the article about mapping individual lanes.

Time or other conditions

Main article: Conditional restrictions

Example: The maximum speed is 30 km/h between 7am and 2pm on workdays (in Germany: Monday-Saturday, but not on public holidays) but otherwise is 50 km/h as implicit speed limit in the city:
maxspeed=50
source:maxspeed=DE:urban
maxspeed:conditional=30 @ (Mo-Sa 07:00-14:00; PH off)

Other considerations

The maxspeed=* tag should ideally be added to only the segment of roadway for which the speed limit applies. Depending on the jurisdiction, a speed limit may take effect at a speed limit sign [1][2], at a solid line painted across the roadway near the sign [3], at a fixed distance away from the sign, or at the nearest intersection.

Examples

Identification	Tagging	Remark
	maxspeed=60 + maxspeed:type=sign
	maxspeed=50 mph + maxspeed:type=sign	The speed limit is specified in the unit which is legally defined and will not be converted to km/h.
	maxspeed=50 + source:maxspeed=DE:urban maxspeed=100 + source:maxspeed=DE:rural maxspeed=none + source:maxspeed=DE:motorway	On all roads in Germany, where no explicit speed limit is defined, the corresponding implicit values can (and should) be specified.
10 knots	maxspeed=10 knots	The speed limit is specified in the unit which is legally defined and will not be converted to km/h.
	maxspeed:variable=*	The (variable) speed limit is announced on speed limit signs.
	maxspeed=60 mph + maxspeed:type=GB:nsl_single maxspeed=70 mph + maxspeed:type=GB:nsl_dual + dual_carriageway=yes	An implicit speed limit of 60 miles per hour (or 70 mph on dual carriageways) on a road in the UK based on a "national speed limit" sign.
	maxspeed:lanes=100|100|80	A speed limit of 80 kilometres per hour on the rightmost lane on a road with an assumed general speed limit of 100 kilometres per hour.
	maxspeed=80 maxspeed:hgv=60	A speed limit of 60 kilometres per hour valid only for heavy good vehicles - 80 kilometres per hour otherwise.
Australian school zone sign from the state of Victoria	maxspeed:conditional=40 @ (Mo-Fr 08:00-09:30, 14:30-16:00;PH off;SH off)	Conditional speed limits during school times. See Conditional restrictions for seasonal or time of day changes.
	maxspeed=80 + maxspeed:conditional=60 @ wet	Wet weather conditional speed limit
	maxspeed:conditional=60 @ (maxweightrating>7.5)	60 km/h for vehicle with a max allowed weight of above 7.5t. See also maxweightrating=*
	It can also be used on the Relation:enforcement. See Relation:enforcement#Example 3: Speed Camera for examples.

Services

• JOSM
  • The default internal mappaint style displays the value of maxspeed on a node if tagged together with traffic_sign=* as traffic sign.
  • The mappaint style maxspeed displays the value of maxspeed on ways as coloured underlay.
• StreetComplete has a quest (disabled by default) that asks about max speed info
• MapComplete Maxspeed editor (does not support the use of *:urban tags)
• Other services:
  • Worldwide maxspeed overlay. Only compatible with maxspeed default unit. No support for mph.
  • Overpass turbo queries. Does not read values with km/h or mph, only the implied default unit.
    • Maxspeed coloured similar colour style to previous ITO map (Yellow for maxspeed of 'none'. dark blue for 130/120/110. light blue for 100, purple for 90/80, red for 70/60 orange for 50 and green for 5/10/15/20/30/40)
    • Maxspeed major roads coloured similar colour style to previous ITO map (Yellow is used for ways with maxspeed set to 'none', dark blue for 130/120/110, light blue for 100, purple for 90/80, red for 70/60, orange for 50 and green for 30

Developers

Parser

Regular expression for numeric values only:

^([0-9][\.0-9]+?)(?:[ ]?(?:km/h|kmh|kph|mph|knots))?$

Regular expression which catches numeric values and implicit values, e.g. like none or signals:

^([^ ]+?)(?:[ ]?(?:km/h|kmh|kph|mph|knots))?$

One mile per hour corresponds to 1.609 km/h and one knot to 1.852 kilometres per hour.

Routers

Router developers should be aware that the highway=* tag is not necessarily a good proxy for speed limits in some jurisdictions. For example, in the U.S. state of Ohio, many factors affect a roadway's speed limit, to the extent that rural, unpaved highway=unclassified ways have a higher speed limit by default (55 mph) than some urban highway=motorway ways (50 mph).

Possible tagging mistakes

maxspeed=unposted

More details at taginfo

• maxspeed=unposted

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Automated edits are strongly discouraged unless you really know what you are doing!

maxspeed=unknown

More details at taginfo

• maxspeed=unknown

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maxspeed=default

More details at taginfo

• maxspeed=default

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maxspeed=variable

More details at taginfo

• maxspeed=variable

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maxspeed=national

More details at taginfo

• maxspeed=national

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maxspeed=25mph

More details at taginfo

• maxspeed=25mph ‒ Should be "25 mph"

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maxspeed=0 mph

More details at taginfo

• maxspeed=0 mph

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maxspeed=0

More details at taginfo

• maxspeed=0

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maxspeed=30;80

More details at taginfo

• maxspeed=30;80

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maxspeed=40;50

More details at taginfo

• maxspeed=40;50

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maxspeed=80; 50

More details at taginfo

• maxspeed=80; 50

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maxspeed=20, 30, 40

More details at taginfo

• maxspeed=20, 30, 40

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maxspeed=40,50

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• maxspeed=40,50

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speed=*

More details at taginfo

• speed=*

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See also

Related keys

• minspeed=* - for the minimum speed
• access=* - for other restrictions
• source:maxspeed=* or maxspeed:type=* - for the source of the speed limit
• traffic_sign=* - for single traffic signs of the restriction
• highway=speed_camera - for an enforced maxspeed
• highway=speed_display - a dynamic electronic sign that displays the speed of the passer-by motorist
• maxspeed:advisory=* - for advisory speed limit, typically on on/off ramps and curves
• maxspeed:variable=* - Indication that the speed of a way is not static (e.g. fixed signs) but dynamic (e.g. variable-message sign)
• maxspeed:conditional=* - Specifies a conditional maximum legal speed limit on a road, railway or waterway, which only applies under certain circumstances
• Relation:enforcement + enforcement=maxspeed - permanently installed devices that measure and document traffic violations, such as maxspeed

Related topics

• maxspeed:practical=* - proposal to specify what speed can be realistically achieved when speed limits and other information are not sufficient to give a realistic picture. Rejected but in use.
• Overview of possible units
• Transport modes of the key access=*
• Detailed overview of implicit speed limits
• Default speed limits (speed limits in various territories applying if no explicit speed limit is signed)
• Description of the lanes suffix for mapping individual lanes
• General article about speed limits
• Sophox query for roads with the widest range of allowed speeds (dead link since 2020)

Maps showing max speed data

• openstreetbrowser showing max speed data
• Max Speed via Overpass - Map showing speed limits. Wait for lines to show then click and edit.
• Maxspeed Freshness Tool - Shows the freshness of the maxspeed tag
• https://graphhopper.com/maps/ – once the route is determined, the speed can be seen on the graph at the bottom by changing to 'max_speed'.
• speed.openmap.lt (only Lithuania, vector speed limit map)
• CyclOSM A cycle render map who render road under 32km/h with cyan shading.