[OSM-talk] some mapping questions

[Nick Whitelegg]

On Sunday 23 Jul 2006 16:35, OJW wrote:
> On Friday 21 July 2006 11:45, SteveC wrote:
> > What do you guys do with all the roads marked 'PRIVATE ROAD' or 'no
> > turning' or 'we will shoot you'? I've been going down all of them and
> > havn't been challenged.
>
> Personally, I ignore private roads.  If they take that attitude with
> keep-out signs, they'll have to live with not having maps of their area. 
> (or buy a GPS themselves, or beg OS for permission to use their maps)
>
> Besides, surely we look suspicious enough making detailed maps, without
> trespassing too. Didn't various people from geograph.org.uk get questioned
> by police for exploring their local area and taking photos?  (and that was
> while on public rights-of-way)
>
> Regards,
>
> OJW

I've actually never understood why wandering round with a hand-held device 
should appear suspicious. I'd have thought that the natural thought would be 
that you're someone doing surveying work for the council, or somesuch - even 
if the average person doesn't know what a GPS device is, the natural 
assumption would be that it's a handheld computer of some sort.

But here's another from the "strange observations made whilst surveying..." - 
on a footpath not too far from here there's a notice reminding users of a 
footpath that it's apparently not allowed, under the Highways Act 1749 or 
somesuch, to "linger" on a footpath. 

Cue images of police officers carting people off for admiring the view.... :-)

Nick