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.

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.

If you have any thoughts around this idea, please comment here.

Many thanks,

Chris.

*** 2 Sep 2024: Update, “MOROW” added to GitHub