OpenStreetMap
While I mapped driveways years ago in my neighborhood, I didn’t include access tags. I saw that later someone added access=private tags, and I thought nothing of it assuming it was the correct tag. So now when I just mapped scores of them in the neighborhood additions, I just now had the thought to look on the wiki for the tag definition.
As said by the wiki, the definition of access=private:
Public access is not allowed. Access is granted with individual permission only. Examples: A driveway with a no trespassing or keep out sign; A company parking lot for employees only. “Individual permission” has been interpreted to also include delivery people making a delivery to a resident or drivers picking up a resident by request.
Most of that makes sense - but in the examples, why would it specify a driveway would need a “No Trespassing” or a “Keep Out” sign? Just wondering if I need to retag some driveways in line with common (or changing) practice, or at least having more confidence in tagging them correctly.
Discussion
Comment from n76 on 8 December 2025 at 19:53
In the rare case where I put an access tag on a residential driveway, I use access=destination
My reasoning is that access tag values are typically used by routing engines and most driveways cannot be used for through traffic. So it is very unusual for a routing engine to select a driveway when routing a driver through the area. So access=private is not needed to avoid routing issues. But a long rural driveway is something that a delivery driver or visitor probably needs to use if actually going to the destination.
Comment from pussreboots on 9 December 2025 at 00:05
I only tag driveways as private if there is a gate, a posted sign, or it’s a very long driveway that serves as a private road.
Comment from Utopiaboy on 18 December 2025 at 21:18
help please. simple. computer challenged.
Comment from I-76 on 18 December 2025 at 21:24
What is it that you need, Utopiaboy? I can’t help without knowing the problem.
Comment from Utopiaboy on 18 December 2025 at 21:28
please help me
The goal: I am age 69. I confess to being American and thus request you excuse my ignorance. When I was 15, I established a small community. Fifty four years later, the community has been recognized with a proclamation by the county commission of Berrien County, Georgia USA. I would attach that here if I could. This prompted Southern Georgia Regional Commission to produce map overlays for the county for distribution with the goal in mind that the county would forward corrected maps to world access such as yours and Wikipedia and Google. No one in the rural county has knowledge nor will attempt what I am doing here. I would attach the maps here if I could. For now, the difficulty lies in getting a human to acknowledge my attempt but so far all I get in a reply is……I don’t understand the question. I want help.
Please tell me how to get the information to you so that you can verify and correctly map Berrien County with Utopia boundaries.
Comment from n76 on 18 December 2025 at 22:00
Hi Utopiaboy,
You have commented on an individual’s diary and was out of context with the original entry and follow up discussion which is part of the reason your question made no sense.
In the OpenStreetMap data I see a “Utopia Circle” in Berrien County near Nashville, Georgia. Is that the area that needs mapping? It certainly looks under mapped with only old, inaccurate TIGER data. Using the publicly available aerial imagery, I am tempted to correct the alignment of the roads I see there and add the buildings. But that would be “arm chair mapping” which I generally do not like to do as I cannot verify street names and other details which I could see if I was visiting in person.
Since this is a comment area for a single person’s project diary there is no easy way to attach your map data directly. You could do that on one of the more general forums like that at https://community.openstreetmap.org/ or you could even just add/correct the data in OpenStreetMap yourself, there are a number of tutorials for that.
If adding and correcting our existing data is too daunting for you, you can leave a message on my account with your email and I can get back to you to see if I can use your local knowledge to update your Utopia location.
Comment from I-76 on 19 December 2025 at 19:22
To bring this diary back to its original point, I’ve reverted most if not all of the driveways I created to access=destination . Thanks for the suggestion n76!