Types of relations

Types of relation

These types of relation are relations that we have in wide use. See proposed relation types below.

Established relations
Type	Status	Element	Comment	Statistic	Photo
multipolygon	de facto		For areas where the outline consists of multiple ways, or that have holes; also used for boundaries.
route	de facto		Like bus routes, cycle routes and numbered highways
route_master	approved		route_master contains (parallel, opposite, variant, …) routes only; heavily used to group route variants in public transport.
restriction	de facto		Any kind of turn restriction.
boundary	de facto		For grouping boundaries and marking enclaves/exclaves.
public_transport	approved		Part of the OSM public transport scheme. Mainly used by public_transport=stop_area.
destination_sign	approved		Destination signs at or before intersections.
waterway	approved		Relation to group elements of a waterway=*.
enforcement	approved		Traffic enforcement devices; speed cameras, redlight cameras, weight checks, …
connectivity	approved		Indicates how the lanes in the "from" member connect to those in the "to" member.
Uncommon relations
Type	Status	Element	Comment	Statistic	Photo
associatedStreet	controversial		House numbers related to a street. See Karlsruhe scheme proposal. Banned by community in a few countries.
superroute	controversial		Groups together a string of routes. Superroute contains (concatenable) routes only. Its usefulness is disputed.
site	in use		Groups elements of a "site" with node members, instead of using a multipolygon. See Relations/Proposed/Site
network	in use		Relations that describe networks with their members being the members of this network.
building	in use		Sometimes used to group elements that form a building in simple 3D modelling, but not usually required.
street	proposed		Bind all parts of a street together and everything else that belongs to it. See Relations/Proposed/Street
bridge	proposed		Groups together all elements of one bridge. See Relations/Proposed/Bridges and Tunnels
tunnel	proposed		Groups together all elements of one tunnel. See Relations/Proposed/Bridges and Tunnels
user defined	proposed		All commonly used values according to Taginfo	Taginfo

Proposed uses of relations

abandoned and obsoleted propositions not included

Junctions, intersections, grade separated crossings, and embankments

Relations/Proposed/Bridges and Tunnels

grouping all ways using a common bridge or tunnel

Relations/Proposed/Junctions

all the ways that make up a junction (such as a motorway intersection)

Relations/Proposed/Turn hints

Hints for whether a turn is a slight left, sharp left, fork, etc.

Relations/Proposed/turn lanes

which turns are allowed from a given lane

Area hierarchies and other relations for areas

Relations/Proposed/Area

to define areas between ways and lanes (linear crossover), virtual and physical dividers and crossover-possibilities, etc.

Relations/Proposed/Label

Manually placed labels or icons in areas

Relations/Proposed/Level

For floors in 3D-Objects (Subway stations, buildings, etc.).

Relations/Proposed/Sled

for grouping together all relevant items of a sled run.

Addressing

Relations/Proposed/Cluster

for grouping features with a collective name or address etc.

Karlsruhe Schema

Relations/Proposed/Postal Addresses

Relations/Proposed/Street

for grouping ways into complete streets, as well as associating other elements with it

Others

Relations/Proposed/Defaults

defines a set of default values (speed limits, oneways, access) for a country, a state

Relations/Proposed/Provides feature

to associate an object such as a restaurant, hotel or museum with one or more map features such as addresses or entrances.

Proposed_features/Group_Relation

a relation to create groups of objects (e.g. when they have a common name as group) without requiring additional tags (they are defined through their members).

Relations/Proposed/Node

a relation to have several node objects at the same location without adding actual geometry objects (e.g. for things attached to a pole, antennas on a mast, etc.)