I plan to ocasionally post about a random OSM tag which I believe should receive more attention. Due to usefulness or curiosity or even fun.

The first tag is highway=escape.

This is used to describe an emergency escape ramp, usually located at the lower end of a mountain, to help stop trucks or other heavy vehicles that are not able to stop while going down the road. It’s a very useful traffic device, and literally life-saving.

Currently it’s wiki page seems to be a rip-off of the wikipedia page. Let’s hope it get’s improved soon. :-)

Cheers, John