Hi, the DWG was drawn into an edit war regarding several paths that were mapped in this area:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/-34.3740/150.8761 The argument is about in how far the (largely north-south running) paths are "illegal" and whether they need to be removed from the map because they would lead to people trespassing. The argument is two-fold; part applies to the paths that are on private land where, I understand, it is the land owner's prerogative to allow or disallow whatever they want, and another part applies to the paths that run into NPWS managed conservation lands. These paths were originally tagged "foot=yes" and with no further access descriptions; one had an "mtb:scale" added. From reading the Illawara Escarpment Plan of Management (https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/-/media/OEH/Corporate-Site/Documents/Parks-reserves-and-protected-areas/Parks-plans-of-management/illawarra-escarpment-state-conservation-area-plan-management-180505.pdf) I get the impression that mountainbiking on any paths not explicitly open for it is illegal. But what about walking - the plan says a lot about maintained walking tracks but it does *not* explicitly say that walking is limited to these. There's also a published "draft strategy" for mountain biking in the area, however I don't know in how far a draft strategy would influence the current legal situation. Anyway, for the time being I have added an access=no to the paths on private land because the landowner doesn't want people to use them and I guess it is their prerogative; and I've removed the explicit foot=yes on the other paths (becasue I'm not sure) and added a "bicycle=no" to close them for mountainbiking. My changeset: https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/74355243#map=16/-34.3750/150.8730 I would however be grateful for any input from the Australian community on this matter. I've also been told that NPWS were keenly looking to sue whoever publishes "illegal" trails or uploads them to OSM; in fact such a legal threat was the reason why DWG got involved in the first place. Bye Frederik DWG Ticket Ticket#2019090110000071 -- Frederik Ramm ## eMail frede...@remote.org ## N49°00'09" E008°23'33" _______________________________________________ Talk-au mailing list Talk-au@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-au