Barrier Maps Updated
30 Apr 2025- Barrier Maps for the UK - Updated
Barrier Maps for the UK - Updated
The Aim
The aim is to be able to produce useful maps for those who are using trikes, wheelchairs, mobility scooters, etc. I don’t possess the skills needed to produce online maps which would show the barriers that may cause problems, but I can produce maps for a Garmin device which show the problems.
Zoom levels
The level of detail now varies according to the zoom level - at the highest level no barriers are shown at all. At medium, they just appear as the red B in its circle. When you are zoomed in, details of what is missing from the barrier are shown.
Barrier Maps for the UK - Updated
access=private or access=customers
If the barrier is marked as access=private or access=customers, or if the barrier has no access tags, but is on a highway which has the tags access=private or access=customers, then that barrier no longer appears in the maps (Although if the highway has a designation such as ‘footpath’, ‘bridleway’ or foot=permissive, then it will still be shown).
highway=steps
Appears if step_count= is missing. This can be easily updated using Street Complete.
barrier=cycle_barrier
Does appear if the measurements are missing, or cycle_barrier= is not shown as either single, double, triple, diagonal or tilted. All is explained, including the measurements needed on the OpenStreetMap Wiki for cycle barriers
barrier=bollard, and barrier=block
Does appear if the measurement of the opening beside the bollard or block is not shown.
Again, can be easily updated using Street Complete.
barrier=kissing_gate
KISSING-GATE-TYPE Appears if the type of kissing gate is missing. LARGE-KG-MEASUREMENTS appears if the kissing_gate is large & the measurements are missing.
If the kissing gate is of the type large_circular_profile, or large_square_profile, it may be wheelchair accessible, and for these two types the measurements are needed for the opening (maxwidth:physical), and the depth of the recess (“recess” is not a common term, and may need altering in the future when it has been agreed / or not, amongst the OpenStreetMap community).
OpenStreetMap Wiki for Kissing Gates.
barrier=gate or barrier=lift_gate or barrier=swing_gate
Does appear if the measurement of the opening is not present - I accept width, maxwidth, maxwidth:physical or opening.
barrier=stile
Does appear if the type of stile is missing, or the step_count is missing for stiles with steps.
Most stiles will be inaccessible for wheelchair users, or users with limited mobility, but stile=ramblers_gate may be accessible to some people, and it is conceivable that one with a wide opening is wheelchair accessible.
barrier=horse_stile
Does appear if the type is missing.
Update Schedule
The provisional plan is to update the barriers_filtered map Every Thursday
I’m afraid this was just too time consuming for me - the schedule from 04/09/2025 onwards will be for the map to be produced on the 1st of the month, with all of the other maps.
As with all of the maps, the plain .img file appears first, and should be available to download by 10:00hrs GMT - that’s fairly automated, but the winexe & gmapi files which are provided through torrent downloads requires my input and I’m not always available to do this straight away.
More info
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Main_Page contains all of the information about mapping on OpenStreetMap.
Downloads
Downloading - Please take note!
It’s slow because I have a normal household internet access, and the files you are downloading are big - some are very big. For instance;
- north sea cycle latest for September 2025 is 1011mb,
It’s going to take a few minutes to download - be patient, look at your screen - somewhere it will show download progress. Don’t click on download again - doing it twice does not speed it up, but it does slow it down.
If my household connection is going to be continually swamped, I may have to change how people can download the files, or start charging so I can upgrade my internet access - I don’t want to do this.
If you find this, or any of the maps I create are useful to you, please consider making a small donation to a charity or to the OpenStreetMap foundation at https://supporting.openstreetmap.org/donate/
Verifying the integrity of your download
Using my linux computer the command: md5sum trike-2026-02-01.7z
produces the result: 60e12c4b599077a74d616a5938e9926d trike-2026-02-01.7z
If you have any doubt at all about the integrity of your download, please use this basic integrity check of the download, checking the result you get is identical to the result in this list;
.
967eef04ee04ac7e9bcd2103eb851923 ave-verte-2026-02-01.7z 4505061a31d9742e72b14fb6511cefac ave-verte-2026-03-01.7z 7cca042165a3b4ae7a0b071674fe0795 ave-verte-gmapi-2026-02-01.7z 64e0a73b88cea789ab55e84c4ecd67ab ave-verte-gmapi-2026-03-01.7z d2620bb4d0375f9378bbd3ae4e0486ee ave-verte-winexe-2026-02-01.7z 8362fd6374b0b6b3fc06a36c05d8e063 ave-verte-winexe-2026-03-01.7z fe4b75ab59b4f4ede71c0f3b5079c505 barriers_filtered-2026-02-01.7z ac1faa8268e9e42745bad8f3979a01d9 barriers_filtered-2026-03-01.7z b7d7b1ea83d8882d247e208345a50356 barriers_filtered-gmapi-2026-02-01.7z 4e6788c6edfe75d1b98fd86d5b02f71c barriers_filtered-gmapi-2026-03-01.7z 71926d52a7350d760696ced1e7835388 barriers_filtered-winexe-2026-02-01.7z 5ae076cc47ec0facd07b776f76ac3e21 barriers_filtered-winexe-2026-03-01.7z d2b4886461d1e65685c9d989d22db8ca canal-2026-02-01.7z 67f796c2079d7899c241d813febde719 canal-2026-03-01.7z f3e63d14e2df57714ba560dad21d8ee8 canal-gmapi-2026-02-01.7z 2694aeb68109eb345f7dfde42c73f301 canal-gmapi-2026-03-01.7z 831559397d7341d089d9df5a9958e77c canal-winexe-2026-02-01.7z 7b6da6fed295528eafd22f649e348612 canal-winexe-2026-03-01.7z 8b931808011b732b9a2e8f3ab0ba8e18 electric_wheelchair-2026-02-01.7z afa6024f7dcae20cda8e0430446e2d8a electric_wheelchair-2026-03-01.7z 1fc0b1220bcdc01cef8e2c2bd9bd86d7 electric_wheelchair-gmapi-2026-02-01.7z fb6d173a94a525c24474f38a8f8a6ff5 electric_wheelchair-gmapi-2026-03-01.7z a0c85dd0a1e87c2449b8672613d6dc2c electric_wheelchair-winexe-2026-02-01.7z f432e5b4fcfc49e936f19822496a6363 electric_wheelchair-winexe-2026-03-01.7z d5f85adb3d3b5587a35d2aad22f5450c north-sea-cycle-2026-02-01.7z bd328af28b1abaa6793e04f06474805d north-sea-cycle-2026-03-01.7z ea3fce5a68391db10c98d92d7326ffb4 north-sea-cycle-gmapi-2026-02-01.7z 226b6289945ba3e08b83c280b3479335 north-sea-cycle-gmapi-2026-03-01.7z 4a845cad5fcc7cdf6318eeeb93f0fbd9 north-sea-cycle-winexe-2026-02-01.7z 4deb4cf21e0d79f1cf4f4a267dea8ddb north-sea-cycle-winexe-2026-03-01.7z 60e12c4b599077a74d616a5938e9926d trike-2026-02-01.7z e23ae43a19b5cd17ca70dd665465e32d trike-2026-03-01.7z 7a8b51a97f1fd86086da60099d79d961 trike-gmapi-2026-02-01.7z 5c758635038321e829db7cc4ce60d9a3 trike-gmapi-2026-03-01.7z fac28970978e67c2d202c397fd220234 trike-winexe-2026-02-01.7z 8d91153d479d81a3cc5de24073438136 trike-winexe-2026-03-01.7z
- The barriers filtered Garmin compatible map is available from
https://daphne-nick.uk/nextcloud/index.php/s/s3jE8Ntc9doT6Y3
- but the torrent files needed to download the exe or gmapi files for all of the maps are available from
https://daphne-nick.uk/nextcloud/index.php/s/6cQesAz38DWRWBo.
Viewing the maps on QMapShack
QMapShack at highest level.
QMapShack at medium level.
QMapShack at lowest level.
Changes - History
- Originally circulated in 2023 when there were two version, one showing all barriers and any tags/measurements that were present, and the barriers_filtered version which shows only those barriers that require attention.
- 22/06/2025 - Updated the search for Kissing Gates to differentiate the larger versions, which may be wheelchair accessible.
Thinking of making your own Garmin compatible maps?
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https://github.com/Nick-Tallguy/Tallguy-mkgmap now contains all of the files - feel free to pass comments, suggest alterations, or copy whatever you need.
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All of the maps are produced using MKGMAP
All data produced by me is subject to the same copyright rules as OpenStreetMap.
” OpenStreetMap® is open data, licensed under the Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL) by the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF).
You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt our data, as long as you credit OpenStreetMap and its contributors. If you alter or build upon our data, you may distribute the result only under the same licence. The full legal code explains your rights and responsibilities.
Our documentation is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license (CC BY-SA 2.0).”