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
produced 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;
.
f9dd1d1c431ba58c5dfb66b203e30239 ave-verte-2026-05-01.7z 7e91c16ebcb8a89a5e4299550ab10454 ave-verte-gmapi-2026-05-01.7z 983baea458e49b75b5ddc92d71f5c062 ave-verte-winexe-2026-05-01.7z cec678b78e189361bf7947fae2dd244f barriers_filtered-2026-05-01.7z a324df2852d6bef1d17a18a0f74edeea barriers_filtered-gmapi-2026-05-01.7z 87f089e2b00ee66a44b28aca2f56efae barriers_filtered-winexe-2026-05-01.7z 5435756f0f0f3dd38a54d0c1c1daff30 canal-2026-05-01.7z 4279fadf1bdd1a237d4f35c2bc01936f canal-gmapi-2026-05-01.7z 571c023837a10b401835f4fd1904f81e canal-winexe-2026-05-01.7z 4bdffb042d4b688566535c125164302a electric_wheelchair-2026-05-01.7z a5fdf904a8162fc60033cb5d9649ebec electric_wheelchair-gmapi-2026-05-01.7z 807bee6dcd099074fd43a5b02a25c665 electric_wheelchair-winexe-2026-05-01.7z be57c90a3a05cd24b1c436504b4dc922 north-sea-cycle-2026-05-01.7z ff6fc214ce09d054062070621d785302 north-sea-cycle-gmapi-2026-05-01.7z a6eeed017a632c02fc0c7a234457c148 north-sea-cycle-winexe-2026-05-01.7z 0741c76e23be1a9fb28951f3af203c1d trike-2026-05-01.7z 1de51c8a424bcfa311d116c400fb3267 trike-gmapi-2026-05-01.7z 5fc408e9b85eed3bafbe1f5fd1fe2dd8 trike-winexe-2026-05-01.7z
- 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?
-
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.
-
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).”