Toronto Poster Columns

A reference layer of Toronto's community postering spots, the places you can pin a flyer, as the City publishes them: 834 poster columns and 1,662 poster boards on transit shelters. Ready to add to the OpenStreetMap editors iD and JOSM while you map.

City data: 2026-02-20 · tiles rebuilt: 2026-11-04

Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Toronto. Sources: Street Furniture – Poster Structure and Street Furniture – Poster Board.

Where you may post. Toronto's sign by-law (Municipal Code Chapter 693, Article 5, § 693-5.2 and 5.3) keeps posters off City property except on structures the City has designated for them, and sets the size, fixing and time limits there. The poster columns are those structures. Whether the public may post on the shelter boards is unconfirmed; they are in this layer because the City publishes them as poster boards, not because anyone has confirmed they are open to all.

Preview

The raster layer drawn over OpenStreetMap, from zoom 15: poster column (circle), shelter poster board (square). A hollow marker is one the City lists as Temporarily Removed.

Coverage vs OpenStreetMap: see which City postering spots are missing from OSM, misplaced or mapped twice — a mapper's worklist with an interactive map and table.

Two layers — which to use

Vector layer	Interactive. Click a point to read the City's fields (`kind`, `id`, `site_id`, `asset_type`, `city_status`, `address`, `fronting`, `from_street`). Best in iD.
Raster layer	Plain markers, circles and squares in two colours, no labels. A readable backdrop. Best in JOSM.

Do not copy the City's numbers into ref. id (PO-…, SH-…) and site_id are the City's asset numbers; a mapper standing at the column cannot check either. The dot tells you where to look. OSM already maps these both ways — as advertising=* (mostly board, some column or poster_box) or as a notice board (tourism=information + information=board + board_type=notice) — and the gap page counts either.

Add to iD

Vector layer (interactive)

Open the iD editor and press U for the Map Data panel.
Under Custom Map Data, open the settings and paste this URL:

https://skfd.github.io/toronto-poster-columns-layer/tiles/vector/{z}/{x}/{y}.pbf

Zoom in, then click any point to see its fields in the inspector.

Raster layer

Open the Background panel and choose Custom.
Paste this URL template:

https://skfd.github.io/toronto-poster-columns-layer/tiles/raster/{z}/{x}/{y}.png

Add to JOSM

Raster layer (recommended for JOSM)

Open Preferences → Imagery and click +TMS.
Paste this entry (the tms[15,17] prefix sets the zoom range; JOSM scales it up past z17):

tms[15,17]:https://skfd.github.io/toronto-poster-columns-layer/tiles/raster/{zoom}/{x}/{y}.png

Give it a name such as Toronto Poster Columns, click OK, then enable it from the Imagery menu. Note JOSM's placeholder is {zoom}, not {z}.

Vector layer (optional)

JOSM can also add the vector tiles via Preferences → Imagery → +MVT:

https://skfd.github.io/toronto-poster-columns-layer/tiles/vector/{zoom}/{x}/{y}.pbf

Notes

The City's lists are its own street furniture. A notice board outside a library, a church or a community centre is not in them, so an OSM board with no dot under it is not wrong — the gap page lists those as “OSM only” for a look, not a fix.
A shelter board sits on a transit shelter. OSM usually has the shelter (most of the City's boards are within 10 m of one) but almost never the board on it.
Street-level imagery is the way to check a spot from home; aerial imagery will not show a poster column.
Vector tiles are pre-rendered for z12–19; raster tiles for z15–17 (the editor overzooms them further).
Tiles are rebuilt weekly; the City refreshes both datasets about twice a year.
This is a reference layer, not an import — add a column to OpenStreetMap when you have seen it. An import of the missing points is being prepared on the import chunks page.