Jason Cunningham wrote: > Agree here. UK bridleways for instance should have foot=designated; > horse=designated; bicycle=designated as all three have equal right. It > would be a mistake to assume the horse rights are greater than > foot/bicycle; they are not. > > I would similarly guess the shared foot/cycleways in Germany would be > similar, i.e. foot=designated; bicycle=designated. > > After looking at the British Ramblers Association website today it does > not appear cyclists have equal rights on Bridelways. This website give > advice on access rights to footpaths etc in the UK, and it says > "Pedal cyclists have a right to use bridleways, restricted byways and > byways open to all traffic, but on bridleways they must give way to > walkers and riders. Like horse riders, they have no right to use > footpaths and if they do so they are committing a trespass against the > owner of the land, unless use is by permission (see Q26 > <http://www.ramblers.org.uk/info/britain/footpathlaw/footpathlaw2.htm#trespass>). > > As with horse-riding (see Q10 > <http://www.ramblers.org.uk/info/britain/footpathlaw/footpathlaw.htm#horses>), > > use of any right of way by cyclists can be controlled by traffic > regulation orders and byelaws imposed by local authorities. Infringement > of byelaws or orders is a criminal offence. Under the Highways Act 1835, > it is an offence to ride a bicycle on the pavement at the side of a > road, and under the Fixed Penalty Offences Order 1999 a person who rides > on a pavement can be fined on the spot by a police officer."
It is probably worth adding that in some areas a bridleway may be restricted to horse use only to allow cantering and the like without the risk of encountering other obstructions. These are normally routes with reasonably good visibility so that exercising the horse is safe. And I believe that restriction would apply even to the land owner who could not permit private use by bikes - although in reality it is probably the land owner who has made the provision for exercising their own livestock anyway ;) bicycle=secondary is probably more accurate in a number of instances. -- Lester Caine - G8HFL ----------------------------- Contact - http://lsces.co.uk/wiki/?page=contact L.S.Caine Electronic Services - http://lsces.co.uk EnquirySolve - http://enquirysolve.com/ Model Engineers Digital Workshop - http://medw.co.uk// Firebird - http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
