[Talk-GB] Other Routes With Public Access

[Andy Townsend]

On 14/02/2016 18:34, Robert Whittaker (OSM lists) wrote:

> Routes marked by OS as "Other Route with Public Access" will most
> probably be routes that appear on the local Highway Authority's "List
> of Streets Maintainable at the Public Expense", but are not maintained
> to a standard for regular motor traffic. They will generally be
> Unclassified Highways (i.e. not an A, B or C road) and unless there is
> a specific Traffic Regulation Order to the contrary, there will be
> full vehicle, horse and pedestrian rights over them.

I suspect that depends what part of the England/Wales you're in. Whilst 
that's certainly true in some cases, near me (Derbyshire) it's more 
likely that they're just public tracks that have got "forgotten" about 
(not necessarily even on the "list of streets").

http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/189123170/history was a case in point - 
"everyone" assumed it was a bridleway but just lacked signage until some 
of the local horsey folks looked into it and got it properly designated, 
so it didn't get lost in 2026.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/38048629 is a slightly different 
example - it is signed as a "Right of Way" (that's exactly what the sign 
says).  I used that for the designation and guessed a bit about access 
tags - a cyclist may want to amend them there if they're aware of cycle 
access.  You changed the designation there and added a fixme presumably 
because you didn't like things being "untidy" - unfortunately the real 
world sometimes is :)

https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/230688755 is similar (but signed 
"Public Right of Way").  Based on previous experience in Derbyshire I'm 
guessing that both of these examples will end up as restricted byways at 
some point (i.e. not BOATs, and not Unclassified County Road or the 
local county's version of that).


>
> As far as tagging is concerned, I would strongly advise against
> designation="other routes with public access", designation=orpa and
> similar. The "Other Route with Public Access" is an OS-specific term,
> and even if that status hasn't been copied from OS, such tagging may
> give the impression that it may have been -- which is not something we
> want to give or accidentally encourage.

Absolutely agreed with that - unless it actually says ORPA on a sign the 
ground (which I'd be very surprised to see).

Cheers,

Andy