"Maintaining Our Rights of Way"- An initiative, initially for the UK, to encourage use, discovery, mapping and reporting of Public Rights of Way (PRoW).
MOROW= “Maintaining our Rights of Way”
-
GPLv3
-
Re-use of existing code, wherever practical.
-
Ideally cross-platform development (IOS/ Android/?)
Nick Whitelegg- Made a previous attempt at Android mobile app, with the aim of mapping ROWs in England and Wales. It shows OSM-mapped paths overlaid on open council data, allowing users to identify gaps – and with a background layer of OS Open Data or historic maps; the latter may no longer work. https://gitlab.com/nickw1/mapthepaths-android. MOROW Investigation work is here https://gitlab.com/nickw1/mapthepaths-android/-/commits/morow-investigation
Nick suggested we might want to look at https://mapthepaths.org.uk/app.html for what it can do, as of now. The https://mapthepaths.org.uk/ site might also be of interest.
Nick is on the OSM-GB mailing list, but I (chris_debian) have his personal email address.
See OSM diary entry https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/chris_debian/diary/401813
- Update OSM diary entry with MOROW progress.
I live in Wiltshire (UK), and when out walking, often see public footpaths that have fallen into disuse, and risk being completely overgrown and overlooked by the general public. Using existing OSM data, I wonder whether lesser used footpaths could be revived; and UK (and beyond?) users encouraged to use paths, for health and wellbeing benefits, and contribution to mapping. My idea is that this could be gamified. Users of a simple new app, or of functionality added to an existing app, would score points for walking/ wheeling along recognized paths. Different scoring could be used, for example:
-
For every 100 yds/ mtrs, or path segment (?), a point could be earned.
-
For paths that are used less regularly, i.e., haven’t had a GPS trace for a specified amount of time, could score more points.
-
In order to encourage use of the path by a diverse range of users, including wheelchair users, significantly more points could be awarded for these users taking part.
-
Points for a successful upload of a recorded GPS track.
-
”First to Map” status, for those who use/ upload a track (which?) using MOROW, for the first time. We need different “First to Map” badges, for different types of users.
-
Implement an in-app League Table to encourage more use of the Rights of Way.
-
How can we encourage other contributions to OSM, using apps such as StreetComplete?
-
How can we encourage users to report issues to the relevant local council Highways Dept.
The obvious benefits to the OSM community, and users, would be the potential to increase the amount of GPS traces that are uploaded, therefore enabling accuracy checks, and also being able to offer up additional mapping data, perhaps by using apps such as StreetComplete. An additional benefit in the UK, would be for the Ramblers “Don’t Lose Your Way” project. This initiative is seeking to reclaim footpaths that have, for historical reasons, dropped off the Definitive Map, as Public Rights of Way. As these paths are reclaimed, walkers and wheelers would be encouraged to use the reclaimed routes, in order to earn points; therefore establishing usage and encouraging more people to use the route.
Many thanks, Chris. https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/chris_debian
People that commented on the diary entry- potential contributors:
** https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Richard
** https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/MxxCon Pacman dots suggestion 🙂
** https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/tastrax
** https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/AllotmentCyclist
- Gather ideas from the community
- Assess with MoSCoW method
- Identify skills needed from contributors