User:Kreuzschnabel/Proposed features:Hitchhiking bench
Hitchhiking bench | |
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Proposal status: | Inactive (inactive) |
Proposed by: | Kreuzschnabel |
Tagging: | highway=hitchhiking_bench |
Applies to: | Nodes |
Definition: | A bench dedicated to request a lift to a local destination |
Statistics: |
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Draft started: | 2017-06-15 |
Taginfo highway=hitchhiking_bench:
Alternative amenity=hitchhiking_bench:
Proposal
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.
Rationale
The opportunity to find such a bench and being guided there by routing apps is very helpful especially in unfamiliar places to get a lift quickly.
Examples
In most cases, there would be 1 to 3 of such benches per village/suburb, either near the centre (easy to reach) or halfway out the outgoing roads. They are kept separated from bus stops to avoid confusion, and there has developed a habit of painting them in a light blue for easier recognition.
Here’s an article in German "SPIEGEL" magazine: [1]
Tagging
The main tag should be highway=hitchhiking_bench. The use of highway=* makes sense because this feature is mainly a usage of the road network, like highway=bus_stop for example.
Further tags:
- destination=A-town;B-dale;C-ington Suggested destinations might be given on flip signs
- bench=yes It actually is a bench so there always would be one
- bench:seats=* as in amenity=bench
- shelter=*
- ref=* if there’s an identifier given
- name=*
- operator=* Maintainer of bench, might be local welfare associations or civil councils
Applies to
Nodes. None of them would be large enough to be mapped as a polygon.
Rendering
Features/Pages affected
External Discussions
Comments
Please comment on the discussion page.