[Talk-GB] Local walking routes

[David Ellams]

Where I live there is a Parish Paths Partnership (P3) Group,
where volunteers work with the council on projects to maintain
and improve access to public footpaths and brideways, e.g.,
waymarking, replacing stiles with gates, etc. They publish a
number of suggested walks on their website (the walks for the
most part just have descriptive titles such as "Circular walk -
Pontesbury Hill and Polesgate Coppice"). With one exception, the
routes themselves are not signed/marked (though they follow
waymarked paths). I am thinking that, once I've got a bit more of
the footpath network mapped, I might ask them whether they would
like some maps of their routes for their web site, etc. (if I'm
feeling really ambitious, I might one day even try to get them
involved in the surveying/mapping - a footpath mapping party?).

My question is whether I should record route relations for these
(perhaps slightly unofficial) unsigned walks (ranging from 1.5 to
about 5 miles). The Walking Routes page on the wiki suggests that
"lwn" is to be used for signed routes.

[1]http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Walking_Routes

This question seems equivalent, to an extent, to this question
about the CTC National Byways Network:

[2]http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Cycle_routes#United_Ki
ngdom_.2F_CTC_National_Byways_Network.3F

I realise there is nothing to stop me from adding these
walking routes (as relations) to OSM, but I'd welcome feedback on
whether folk think it is appropriate. Has anyone done anything
like this elsewhere? I would not have to add them to OSM in order
to produce some maps, so quite relaxed if there is a consensus
that it is not appropriate.

There is also a local Walking For Health group, with some
involvement from the council, which publishes routes, but as far
as I can see these are waymarked specifically, so I probably will
consider creating route relations for those. Likewise, the P3
Group's one specifically waymarked (and named) route, I feel is a
good candidate to record in OSM. So shout if you think I'm wrong
on that one, too.

Cheers

David (davespod)

References

1. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Walking_Routes
2. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Cycle_routes#United_Kingdom_.2F_CTC_National_Byways_Network.3F
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