[Tagging] Disabled access on footpaths

[Paul Allen]

I'm starting to map a new (ish) nature reserve which has permissive access
footpaths (that
bit is easy), and some of those footpaths are suitable for wheelchair
users.  I'm guessing
some will also be accessible to mobility scooters (I will ask them, but I
don't expect sensible
answers).  Various rambling groups are pushing for better disabled access
on footpaths
and bridleways, and UK legislation almost requires it. So...

1) How do we tag that a footpath/bridleway is legally (and practically)
accessible to
wheelchairs and, possibly, mobility scooters?  I think they need to be
covered
independently as legislation doesn't draw a distinction but the situation
on the
ground might permit wheelchairs but not mobility scooters.  So
wheelchair=yes
probably isn't the right way to go.

2) The nature reserve states that some of the paths have "shallow
gradients" and
"compacted gravel surfaces suited to wheelchair users."  Did we ever settle
on a
definition of gravel type that would fit this?

3) Pedestrian access is via "a mobility kissing gate which is RADAR-key
friendly."

Video of somebody in a mobility scooter using a RADAR-key mobility kissing
gate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVy3aWRtS5Y (easy in one direction,
not
so easy in the other).

RADAR is now officially known as the National Key Scheme, but everyone
still calls it RADAR.  There is an equivalent (but not physically
interchangeable)
Euro Key used in Germany, Switzerland and a few other European countries.
I thought we had tags for access key schemes, but my memory must be playing
up.
There are probably equivalent schemes elsewhere, so any tagging needs to
distinguish between schemes - anyone expecting to open a UK RADAR lock
with a Euro Key is going to be disappointed.  Something like a
disability_access_key=* attribute?

RADAR:
https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/shop/official-and-only-genuine-radar-key

Euro Key: https://www.eurokey.ch/en/ and
https://www.schwerbehindertenausweis.de/nachteilsausgleiche/mobilitaet-und-reisen/euroschluessel-fuer-behindertentoiletten

Section 20 of UK Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1970/44/section/20
It covers "invalid carriages" whether or not "mechanically propelled"
(wheelchairs
and mobility scooters) on footways; and defines "footway" as "a way which
is a footway
[sidewalk in OSM-speak], footpath or bridleway within the meaning of the
Highways Act 1980."
It doesn't say that footpaths and bridleways must be accessible to the
disabled but states that
"no statutory provision prohibiting or restricting the use of footways
shall prohibit or restrict the
use of that vehicle on a footway."  In practise, new footpaths are often
constructed with
disabled access in mind and existing gates/stiles are being replaced with
disabled-friendly
versions.

-- 
Paul


-- 
Paul
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/attachments/20210610/08da8fcf/attachment-0001.htm>