How should I map several lamps that are not street lamps? In some instances, they are near streets and paths, but in others, they serve only to illuminate an area of grass or other landscaping. So far, I’ve been tagging them
I suspect that there is a suitable man_made tag, but if they are used to illuminate paths, cycleways etc then highway=street_lamp is entirely appropriate. Similarly if they are local authority lamps used to illuminate public spaces then use the well known tag.
Types of lighting i would not tag with highway=street_lamp include:
lighting for sports pitches (usually denonted with lit=yes)
lighting obviously for security purposes (e.g., around industrial sites)
That seems correct according to this proposal, which is probably the most popular one at the time. Is there a reason why you would prefer a different tagging?
Most of the lamps probably fall into both lighting for security purposes as well as lighting for decorative purposes. Many of them do light sidewalks but not all. I do not see anything under man_made=* that would be acceptable. Also, I do not know what well known tag you are referring to. The lamps are owned/operated by the University that owns the grounds; would the University be considered a local authority or is that reserved for, say, a city or municipality?
Yes, that is basically the issue; the light_source=* tag I’ve used us supposed to be a primary tag. I am asking because I got a comment on one of my commits asking me to change the tags to highway=street_lamp.