Godfrey Bartlett wrote: > I must agree with you that it is pointless tracing in footpaths from NPE > data. Over 50 years, footpaths have been closed, diverted, amalgamated > etc and new ones established in line with the changing features of the > countryside.
I've done areas near me that were completely blank and areas a bit further afield that had had NPE paths traced. It's true to say that the areas with NPE-traced paths were harder work, simply because you're essentially merging two lots of data and it takes more care to make sure that no information is lost. That doesn't mean that tracing paths from NPE is a bad idea in itself, because information was made available earlier to people before someone mapped it with a GPS. In a few years time people may make similar comments about "problems with inaccurate data from old GPSs that were only accurate to within 5m or so". Even leaving aside footpaths, it still makes sense to get information that doesn't change much from inaccessible areas (e.g. streams and rivers) from NPE. If anything, tracing from the very low resolution Yahoo images that cover much of the UK is the bigger problem. > I'm coming to the conclusion that OSM will never map GB rural walking > routes at a level of accuracy required by a hiker. Even where legal > rights of way exist, there will be significant breaks in the route where > it is impossible to provide non-copyright verifiable evidence of the PROW. "Never" is quite a long time! Already, OSM is better than the OS at describing footpaths immediately local to me - the access mapped on the OS's maps often has not been updated in line with significant landuse changes (e.g. opencasting, the end of deep mining and closure of associated railways). Where a footpath is obvious on the ground but its legal status isn't you can still map it (I'd tend to use foot=unknown if it is not obviously permissive and add a note saying that people seem to be walking it even if it is unsigned). _______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb
