[Talk-GB] Unclassified Country Road (UCR)

[SomeoneElse]

Rob Nickerson wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> Now that the Public Right of Way documentation [1] has settled down a 
> bit, I have had a chance to pick up some of the other comments 
> received in the last few weeks. One of which was on Unclassified 
> Country Roads (UCR).

I was wondering when this one would crop up!  I've gone with 
"designation = unclassified_county_road" in Lincs where I've come across 
them (because, basically, that's what the sign says).

An example is here:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/75316181

The fact that I didn't put any access tags on that was by accident 
rather than by design - I'd have thought "<various>=yes" would be 
appropriate in this case, as I'm interpreting Lincs' use as "yes, you 
really are legally allowed to drive down here".  I also added "note = 
Unsuitable for Motors" because that's signed too, implying "... but 
don't try it in a Ford Mondeo".

Follow the track north and you'll get to
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/162729207

which has new bridleway signs saying to the trail bikers "but keep off 
this bit".

Of your links, from reading http://www.gleam-uk.org/our-aims/ it looks 
like they definitely have an angle on this - "... objective is to ensure 
that unsurfaced highways in the countryside carrying public rights of 
way are preserved from damage caused by inappropriate use, particularly 
by recreational off-road motor vehicles of all kinds.".  I'm sure that 
there's a similar website somewhere representing trail bikers and other 
off-roaders but with a very different spin on the use of the term.

There have been examples in the OSM database recently of designation 
tags that would prevent off-road vehicle use "disappearing" following 
what appears to be armchair editing (I've mentioned it previously on 
this list).  I don't have a particularly pro- or anti- view as regards 
off-road vehicle use, but do want to see a map that accurately reflects 
what's there on the ground (however complicated English and Welsh law 
contrives to make it).

Traffic Regulation Orders (something your Warwick CC link also mentions) 
is something that we might also want to think about - I don't know of a 
good way of representing them.

Cheers,
Andy