Talk:Tag:waterway=access point

Distinction Between Access Point and Spillway

The page says "For access points that have a constructed ramp for launching boats" to use a slipway. What if an access point has a constructed ramp, but is still narrow and intended for foot traffic? Picture in your mind, for example, a more well-built version of what is in the picture from Richmond, VT, USA, on the page. If that were a concrete ramp instead of primitive steps, would it become a slipway because it is a "constructed ramp"? If the answer is yes, it becomes a slipway, then I think the wiki page for slipway should be edited to show that it is not just for places suitable to launch a boat towed there by a passenger motor vehicle. If the answer is no, such an access point is still a "waterway=access_point," then I would suggest changing the sentence "For access points that have a constructed ramp for launching boats..." to be something like "For access points that have a wide constructed ramp for motor vehicles to drive down in order to launch boats from trailers..." or the like.

Hi, good question. There's some subjectivity here. Historically leisure=slipway has been used by some mappers for any access point in lieu of a better tag. Though in most OSM-based apps leisure=slipway is assumed to be a place where vehicular trailer launching is possible, so this is the guideline I tend to use in my own mapping. When there's doubt, I add tags to the feature like trailer=yes/no, vehicle=yes/no, or even ramp=yes/no, but I don't expect general-purpose apps to really consume these. The documentation could probably be improved to cover more situations. Quincylvania (talk) 20:03, 6 May 2025 (UTC)