Talk:Key:step count

Short Stairs at building entrance

Hi, The entrance to a market hall look from air position as inside the building, because of a massive roof over it.

• Do i tag the downstairs as highway=step, beginning at building-wall inside direction and add step_count=5 or do i tag it as a node with building=entrance und add at the node step_count=5?

In case of way: should the direction of the highway=steps way always look in upstairs direction or in other direction do i tag simply a negative value for downstairs, like step_count=-5? In case of node: here i can only code the direction with a positive value as upstairs and a negative value as downstairs. Should i do this in this way or is it simply unimportant? --Okilimu 19:21, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

I would tag this as highway=steps, covered=yes, step_count=5, because steps are always on highway=steps, they would not be parsed on building=entrance. I like the negative value for downstairs, but actually I have never seen it in any proposal. Lulu-Ann

There's no reason to use negative values for downstairs because this can be expressed by Key:incline (which, unlike negative step_count values, also works for ways that aren't steps). Except for that, I agree with your tagging suggestion. --Tordanik 14:01, 31 March 2010 (UTC)

Sets of steps

How would you tag this a stair with sets like this? step_count=9, a series of very small highway=footway and highway=step's or something else? --Nighto (talk) 22:36, 17 July 2014 (UTC)

I would probably use alternating footways and steps today, but wouldn't consider the alternative wrong. However, both are clearly not ideal solutions. I believe we should introduce a dedicated tag for mapping landings eventually. --Tordanik 12:13, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

How to count steps?

Mention if this

                     +---------------------
                     |
                +----+
                |
----------------+

is one step or two?

Must be two, as this

                 +--------------------
                 |
-----------------+

must be one!

So add: Tip: count the vertical bars in the above diagrams, not the flat items.

Jidanni (talk) 03:19, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

I can confirm that this is the intended meaning of the tag. However, is it actually common for people to be confused about how to count steps? To me, this has always seemed obvious. (Are there cultural differences similar to the ones for level numbering that I'm not aware of?) The examples which are already on the page should make the intent unambiguous imo. --Tordanik 18:31, 24 June 2019 (UTC)

Good for you. For other people:

https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-count-the-stairs-of-a-staircase-Do-you-count-the-landing-Or-just-the-steps

https://www.braymore.ca/PianoMovers/Counting-Stairs.aspx

Jidanni (talk) 14:01, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

Unequal number of steps depending on side

Sometimes, some steps do not span the whole width of the structure (e. g. because the ground at the base has a slope perpendicular to the first step(s)).

How is this dealt with? Martianfreeloader (talk) 21:03, 29 August 2020 (UTC)