Private Road counting as CityStrides road

:link: My profile link : Luke Tompkins - CityStrides

Walters Road in Newport News, VA is listed as a street, but it is a private road and has a no trespassing sign on it.
Street Link: Walters Road - CityStrides

All the street data comes from OpenStreetMap.
If something is incorrect in CityStrides, it should be edited in https://www.openstreetmap.org

While there’s some helpful info in Wiki you’re doing the right thing here by asking for help from others who have OSM editing experience.

How private is that? if i look it up in google streetview, it’s a accessable road with streetview footage all the way, and a lot of houses on that road as addresses. If i was a mail or package delivery, I needed to be accessing that road to deliver right? is it then private?

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Yeah, there’s always an internal debate about how private is private. Ok, if it’s gated, then that probably answers that. But what about Walters Rd above. Clearly marked as private, but nothing physically stopping you from accessing. At some point you have to make the call on if you’re gonna get called in for trespassing. Probably, in general, better off to play it safe and abide by posted signage… even if I haven’t always been great at following that advice. :wink:

Hi Luke - all of us have encountered the private road conundrum. Like the previous comments in this thread, at the end of the day you have to make your own determination.

Not sure if you already have enough info on this but I’ve walked many roads and can share my perspective. In the US, ‘private road’ is an indication of who maintains it (city vs residents) rather then who can walk on it. I always walk streets marked private on the sign and try to be ready with some lame excuse in case I’m challenged (which is extremely rare).

A No Trespassing sign is more explicit and I rarely walk past them. And locked gates, signs about armed guards and attack dogs are also enough deterrent for me!

Like James indicated, many of us turn to editing the OSM, reading the wiki and articles like this: Key:access - OpenStreetMap Wiki.

I G.mapped your indicated street and it looked walkable to my experience. It looks like there is a No Trespass sign down that first length. If OSM/CS traverses into a driveway/barrier, I will use the OSM split function and mark the street private after the sign/barrier. And whether I edit or not sometimes depends on if a resident talked to me. I usually edit based on their feedback unless they are overly aggressive or mean and then I just leave it alone.

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Okay I just saw the no trespassing sign and thought probably not the best idea. Sorry if I put this in the wrong thread or something