UK 2018 Q3 Project: Paths and rights of way

Access provisions visualised on an ITO Map

The 3rd quarterly project of 2018 is paths and rights of way. (Background information on Public Rights of Way.)

Asking Your Local Council For Mapping Data from Satori Labs has an excellent explanation of the situation between open data, councils, and the Ordnance Survey.

Please add to this page. What resources are available? What are you focusing on? Who can we collaborate with?

Basic steps

To add a public right of way to OpenStreetMap, please follow these basic steps. More detail is available here should you need it.

1. Map what you see on the ground (e.g. if a public footpath follows a track, then map the track with a highway=track tag).
2. Add the designation (e.g. add a designation=public_footpath tag)
3. Recommended: Add the reference using a prow_ref=* tag).
4. Recommended: Add the surface using a surface=* tag).

Additional tagging that can be helpful for navigation and routing:

1. Add appropriate access=* tags for the different modes that can use the path (e.g. foot=designated, bicycle=yes, etc.)
2. Add barrier=* tags for linear features adjacent to paths (e.g. barrier=fence, barrier=wall, barrier=hedge).
3. Add barrier=* tags at nodes where paths intersect linear barriers (e.g. barrier=gate, barrier=kissing_gate, barrier=stile, barrier=cattle_grid).

Changeset hashtag

Please add #UKpaths to your changeset comment. We can then track who is mapping (and where) via this page.

Useful tools

• Map the Paths (Nick Whitelegg)

A new website to help you add Rights of Way to OpenStreetMap by comparing OpenStreetMap data to the Local Authority datasets. Allows for direct (basic) editing in regions where the Local Authority has made data available under an open licence.

• PRoW Progress (Robert Whittaker)

Takes information about Rights of Way from four sources and flags up possible errors / omissions. A good way to track progress of our mapping efforts.

• Footpath edit tracker (Harry Wood)

Stats graphs and competitive rankings for edits during this quarterly project.

• TagInfo tracker (RobJN)

Daily stats taken from TagInfo saved to spreadsheet. Simple progress tracker.

• Designation Tagging Warnings (Robert Whittaker)

A report to highlight possible tag errors.

• Overpass Turbo data validation checks:
  • Script 1: highway=footway with fixme=*
  • Script 2: highway=bridleway with fixme=*
  • Script 3: highway=path with fixme=*
  • Script 4: highway=track with fixme=*
  • Script 5: designation=public_footpath with fixme=*

Mapping guidelines

• Community agreed tagging guidelines
• Unofficial PRoW tagging suggestions (more detail but not discussed with community)

Who's involved

The following table allows you to share comments with other users. For example, where are you mapping, how else are you helping. Feel free to add names and notes to this list.

Username	Comments / Notes
Nick Whitelegg	Developer of the MapThePaths.org.uk website.
Robert Whittaker	Developer of the ProW Progress and Designation tagging warnings pages.
RobJN	Mapping in Warwickshire (south).