NCN 65 route changed in York

I’ve noticed some new NCN658 signs have appeared in York city centre so I looked on the Sustrans website to find out a bit more.

It appears they have rerouted the 65 so that it crosses the river earlier and the 658 links the new route of the 65 with the 66 over to the East.

This would make the 658 “national” route about a mile long! Hmm, oh well.

Anyway, the signs on the ground don’t match the Sustrans map. The reroute of the 65 to cross the river earlier isn’t signposted and it goes through a real traffic blackspot - it’s busy (but not fast) and the lanes are narrow with a lot of buses and seems a curious change to make.

Also the map shows the 658 going along a one way street (fine if you’re going the right way) but the signs correctly go round it, and the signs show 658 when the map shows it should be the 65 (after they’ve merged).

There are also some old and faded 66 signs that haven’t been taken down from whenever that route was changed either, it’s a shame that whoever put the 658 signs up didn’t take these old ones down.

Keeping the 65 where it is and using the actual 658 signs makes perfect sense so can I conclude that the online map is wrong and that I should map what’s actually there rather than taking the Sustrans map and “verifying” it?

Do Sustrans publish these changes anywhere so they can be checked out and we can keep OSM up to date?

Thoughts?

Cheers,
Steve

Well I walked most of the route last night and I’ve answered my own question. The signs on the ground are very clear in the direction I walked (even if some of them are still laminated paper!) and the 65 has not been rerouted and therefore the online map is wrong. Where the 2 routes join there is even a brand new sign that tells you to follow the existing 65 route by crossing the bridge.

The online map also shows the last bit of the 658 going down the east side of the car park when in fact it goes down the west, a minor point admittedly.

There do seem to be some missing signs coming the other way though and the reverse route round Bootham Bar is not signposted. I guess it would go straight on through the bar because High Petergate (with the York Arms on it) is one way.

The 658 is not rendering yet, but this is the bit I’m talking about
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53.96149&lon=-1.08789&zoom=17&layers=C

So much for the FAQ that says they use OS instead of OSM for their mapping because OS is more accurate!

This is the bridge the online map says the 65 is now routed over. You get the idea!
http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.96034,-1.086788&spn=0.003308,0.013368&z=17&layer=c&cbll=53.960619,-1.086496&panoid=3BZ0nHmpMg4Fjspe53bx-g&cbp=12,241.35,0,11.16

Cheers,
Steve

Good detective work there. :slight_smile: I don’t believe that route changes are published anywhere (other than as updates to the Sustrans online mapping).

If you e-mail maintenance@sustrans.org.uk about the old 66 signs and the missing/reverse signs, they’ll pass the suggestions onto the local rangers. As Liaison Ranger for North Oxfordshire I occasionally get comments forwarded that way.