[OSM-talk] Private roads

[Stephen Gower]

On Thu, Jul 12, 2007 at 01:40:45PM +0100, Nick Whitelegg wrote:
>   >Actually, that's more a question for the bike= variation on the
>   >access= key.  (Again in the UK,) The rights and prohibitions for
>   >cycling are a grey area legally, and I've seen lots of bike=no tags
>   >in OSM on footpaths where in reality there's not a "No Cycling"
>   >sign, and therefore cycling is probably allowed
> 
> If they're public footpaths, then cycling isn't normally allowed.

  Under what law?  http://www.cyclecraft.co.uk/digest/pushing.html
  suggests not the 1835 Highways Act (due to an 1867 bit of case law,
  backed up in 1994).  If there's a public footpath across private
  land, then it's likely that a cyclist is trespassing (although I'm
  unaware of there ever being a prosecution), but in an alleyway as
  described in that page there doesn't appear to be a legal reason
  why cycling is not allowed.  Round my way, many such alleyways have
  been marked bike=no but I think they shouldn't have been.

  s