blocked roads

[34D]

Hello,

There are a few cases near me of country lanes that appear to have been blocked unofficially.

What I mean is that there are roads marked on googlemaps (and various printed maps I have) but on the ground there are locked gates and similar, often with signs stating 'private keep out' on them.

Can anyone advise what could be done to ( a ) verify whether these rights of way do still exist and ( b ) get these routes opened up once more.

 

[yorkie]

Can you link to their locations on an OS Map? (example)

 

[WSW]

Hello,

There are a few cases near me of country lanes that appear to have been blocked unofficially.

What I mean is that there are roads marked on googlemaps (and various printed maps I have) but on the ground there are locked gates and similar, often with signs stating 'private keep out' on them.

Can anyone advise what could be done to ( a ) verify whether these rights of way do still exist and ( b ) get these routes opened up once more.

Google Maps do not use data that suggests "rights of way" as it is simply cheap, and often poor quality, road network data (same goes for other popular online mapping).

As above, you are advised to check the roads in question on an Ordnance Survey map, which can be relied on to carry quality information, although no road or path on an OS map is evidence of a right of way. Generally if the road is classified by the local highways authority then it should be possible to drive or walk along it, otherwise it could well be a private road. If you have a specific road in mind, I'd contact the local highways authority.

Steve
(cartographer)

 

[MK Tom]

Google Maps will often send you down roads that aren't open any more or haven't opened yet. A few nice examples:

https://maps.google.com/?ll=52.000881,-0.799636&spn=0.002639,0.004823&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=52.00088,-0.800661&panoid=uwRESrT639P7hHjxd5nqGA&cbp=12,246.85,,0,8.51

https://maps.google.com/?ll=51.997287,-0.79814&spn=0.005304,0.009645&t=h&z=17&layer=c&cbll=51.997173,-0.798256&panoid=_LFiuNQaigGYHk21iFP1Nw&cbp=12,217.4,,0,8.88

Other times it won't know about roads that have been open for years... (and sometimes an insect will splat on the camera lens)

https://maps.google.com/?ll=52.038264,-0.664828&spn=0.00261,0.004823&t=h&layer=c&cbll=52.038384,-0.664848&panoid=g-gdMsoYfVYAQbBchf8Flg&cbp=12,2.32,,0,16.32&z=18

 

[jopsuk]

Your local council (county or unitary) will have a Rights of Way team- for example, this is Cambridgeshire's contact page. They are the ultimate authority for this.

 

[Eagle]

Can you link to their locations on an OS Map? (example)

I suggest you use the OS's mapping site directly, as the maps used by Bing can be an edition or two out of date.

 

[PaulLothian]

Very few maps show rights of way accurately, but Google mapping is among the worst for failing to show changes in roads. It took them over 10 years to show a major restructuring of roads around Livingston town centre, and we had to specifically warn visitors to my office to NOT follow Google maps!


I have also notice it fails to show West Lothian's Civic Centre in Livingston, one of the largest workplaces in West Lothian!

 

[jopsuk]

Paul: this though is about the English legal status of "Right of Way", something that's not applicable in Scotland- due to the starting basis for access essentially being reversed. In the case of these country lanes, if they're not defined as Rights of Way, then even walking along them would be a civil offence of trespass. If it was Scotland, then (with limited exceptions) it would be legal to walk, cycle or ride a horse along them- landowners cannot simply bar access if a path/road exists.

 

[starrymarkb]

Very few maps show rights of way accurately, but Google mapping is among the worst for failing to show changes in roads. It took them over 10 years to show a major restructuring of roads around Livingston town centre, and we had to specifically warn visitors to my office to NOT follow Google maps!


I have also notice it fails to show West Lothian's Civic Centre in Livingston, one of the largest workplaces in West Lothian!

I didn't think Google maps had been going that long... Certainly since they moved to data collected by the streetview fleet, if you report errors to them they usually fix them fairly quickly (usually within 30 days)... However before it was data provided by Nav-teq/Tele-Altas and Google had no control over it!

Openstreetmap might be another option, but it user generated so can't be relied on for legal right of way status

 

[dvboy]

You can report errors in Google Maps. I have reported 2 local errors recently (road naming errors) and they were corrected within a week.

 

[PaulLothian]

Paul: this though is about the English legal status of "Right of Way", something that's not applicable in Scotland- due to the starting basis for access essentially being reversed. In the case of these country lanes, if they're not defined as Rights of Way, then even walking along them would be a civil offence of trespass. If it was Scotland, then (with limited exceptions) it would be legal to walk, cycle or ride a horse along them- landowners cannot simply bar access if a path/road exists.

My apologies - I was of course referring back to the OP's reference to Googlemaps! I always think, when walking in England, how glad I am to live in a civilised country where access is permitted in most circumstances
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I didn't think Google maps had been going that long...

They haven't (only since 2005 or so), but they used mapping that had been out of date for a long time!

 

[34D]

As an example location, here (googlemaps) which is here (ord survey).