[Talk-GB] Scottish paths map

[Mark Goodge]

On 13/09/2021 17:54, Andy Townsend wrote:

> Historically the Ramblers (at least where I've encountered them, in 
> England and Wales) have tended to use Ordnance Survey Maps rather than 
> OSM.  There are exceptions (at least one Ramblers Footpath Secretary 
> regularly posts to this list).  I've never quite understood this - in 
> Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and North Yorkshire, OSM has far more 
> detail, and pretty much anywhere a tourist would want to go is in 
> there.  There are some "rights of way in name only" missing from OSM, 
> but even they are getting added*.

There are, I think, two main reasons why walkers in general still prefer 
OS maps to OSM.

The first is that the default OSM render doesn't give any visible 
indication of rights of way, unlike OS which clearly highlights them. I 
know the information is there in the data, but it's the standard render 
which is "the map" to most people. And I'm not, offhand, aware of an OSM 
layer that is geared to the needs of walkers and does clearly show 
rights of way. There are a some good layers aimed at cyclists, but none 
that I've found that are specific to the needs of walkers.

The second is that having an OS map in your hand, or on your phone, is a 
very good answer to the question "what right do you have to be here?". 
Because pretty much everyone knows that OS maps show the legal rights of 
way, and you can point to them as justification for using a path or 
track. But OSM suffers from the Wikipedia problem in this respect; 
because it's user-generated data you can never be 100% certain that it's 
accurate. As far as access rights are concerned, you still need to check 
with definitive sources if there happens to be a dispute. And OS maps 
are, for most of the public, the definitive source.

Mark