Key:route
 route
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| Description |
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A customary or regular line of passage or travel, often predetermined and publicized. 
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| Group: routes |
| Used on these elements |
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| Documented values: 45 |
| Status: de facto |
| Tools for this tag |
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This key is be used to describe a route: a customary or regular line of passage or travel, often predetermined and publicized. Routes consist of paths taken repeatedly by people and vehicles: a ship on the North Atlantic route, a car on a numbered road, a bus on its route or a cyclist on a national route.
How to map
On relations
Use on relations 
(which means in combination with type=route) is by far the most common approach,
On ways
In specific cases route=* can be used on ways 
, however not when combined with a value for a mode of transport from access=*.
For instance route=foot; route=bicycle or route=horse may be used on relations (for signposted routes), but should not be used on ways .
Examples where route=* may be used on ways include:
Common values
To help mappers find a suitable category in OSM to describe a relation in the real world, the values below are ordered by general route type. For an alphabetic list of the most commonly accepted values, please see Map Features#Route (also included in Relation:route).
Public transport routes
Motorized land routes
Please note that route=railway and route=tracks refer to the infrastructure, regardless of their use for either public transport, freight transport, etc.
Non-motorized vehicles
Although wheelchair-users often follow the access-restrictions for pedestrians, in OSM-access they are classified under vehicles, see Key:access#Land-based transportation
Pedestrians / without a vehicle
Depending on legislation users of inline_skates may follow the rules for pedestrians or bicycles, in OSM inline_skates are not counted in the vehicle-category, see Key:access#Land-based transportation
With animals
Unmotorized winter sports
Water routes
Please note that Tag:route=ferry has a wide variety of forms: it can be either a form of regular public transport (where people are transported based on a timetable), but it can also be an simple self operated cable pontoon across a canal on a hiking route on non-public land.
Routes not taken by people and vehicles (controversial)
The values below are controversial as noted in the linked wiki-pages; they are not regular routes of travel (for people and vehicles, vessels or livestock) as meant above. However they are used more often than many of the values above.
See also same kind of logic but without using routes: