Hiking trail declined, ON APPEAL, for "lack of pedestrian access"

Nomination Support
1

It’s a HIKING TRAIL! It’s the very definition of pedestrian access. I even made a point of including the gate in the photo.

Am I missing something obvious here? Or is this patently absurd?

Wayspot Submission for San Antonito Open Space

Cedar Crest NM

Not Accepted

2024-12-29

Niantic Note

Thanks for the appeal, Explorer! The object’s location in question does not have pedestrian access which does not meet the Wayfarer criteria. We recommend you review the Wayspot rejection criteria before submitting your next Wayspot contribution: Rejection Criteria — Wayfarer Help Center

Rejection Criteria

Pedestrian Access

trail head
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2 Likes
2

If it’s the location below, I would agree it’s intended for safe pedestrian access and encourages outdoor recreation.

1 Like
3

Yes, that’s it.

4

It would be helpful to see the whole nomination with its text fields and supporting photo to be able to give constructive advice please. With what I see here I cannot tell if it was mentioned this is a trail and cannot tell you if this is why it was rejected.

If this is a trailhead, I would suggest nominating it as such, not as an open space.

5

The NAME of the trail is “open space”.

6
Description

Open space & trail head

Supplemental Info:

Dead end road up a mountain. Parking here and at the mailbox pullout across the road.

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7

It seems there are several areas that you could improve for this nomination. First, open space is a general term that just means undeveloped land. It seems in Albuquerque there has been a long-term effort to preserve these open spaces in order to provide conservation and recreational activities.
If you go to the website for these areas (Open Space Maps — City of Albuquerque), You’ll see that they’re actually a large number of different areas that have trails.

This particular one seems to be called San Antonito, And the photo you have seems to be one of a few different access areas into the trails.
So to improve your nomination, one thing you could do is be more specific with the name such as San Antonito trailhead. I think it would also be helpful. If you could get that sign in the picture more clearly if the sign identifies the trailhead in someway just to have an anchor point.

For supplemental information, you could provide some background on this open space project for Albuquerque, you could describe the San Antonio area, you could even provide a link to the website that describes it into the maps. All of that could provide viewers with enough additional information to see that this is in fact, a pedestrian accessible trail head

Just some thoughts to consider.

5 Likes
8

The area is designed for pedestrians to walk, but maybe a better support photo and support text would show more access rather than a photo of and description of the road?

Not saying I think it should have been rejected, though.

2 Likes
9

What would be a better photo? In what way could the photo be better?

10

Perhaps from this angle, showing ability to congregate at the trailhead.

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Or the inside the open space itself, looking back at the stile.

I (almost) always reference pedestrian access in my text. “Trail head location has accessible parking and opens into an open space intended for easy pedestrian access.” For example.

1 Like
11

![image|690x441](upload://i7GfxbVCYYcY6puwWGx12jQfGjl.jpeg
This structure blocking the trail confuses me, but i would take the photo from an angle something like this to show the pedestrian access and trail beyond.

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image701×449 55 KB

and explain that structure in the path.

1 Like
12

In the U.K. that structure is for the passage of horses. So it prevents motorised vehicles and bikes.

7 Likes
13

could definitely be that the appeals reviewers did not know what that was either and thought it was preventing passage.

1 Like
14

Since there appears to be no marker/sign I would certainly expect the supplementary information to be clear about the name of the trail with the Open Space. Preferably a link to a webpage about the trail.

2 Likes
15

Thanks! I’ve seen grates used to keep livestock from being able to pass but never something intended for animals to cross.

2 Likes
16

It confuses me too but that’s my best guess as well - to discourage motorcycles and quad bikes.

17

The marker/sign is in the original photo. I made a point of including both the sign and the gate.

18

In that case I would opt for signfarer and take a photo where the wording on the sign is clear.
That would make it much stronger.

1 Like
19

I am hoping that the discussion here will convince Niantic that the appeals decision was wrong and that you will quietly receive a new email accepting this. If not, hopefully the points here will help with a new nomination. Let us know if it gets reversed, please.

2 Likes
20

The sign is really difficult to read. I thought it was a generic city ordinance or space rules sign at first. If so, I think the wider angle approach is better, showing the fence and stile.

If the sign does have a better reference to the open space, then that’s a good focal point.

I’ve also gone for the “wide angle” approach for my main photo as I thought it was more photogenic and then made my support photo the “rules” sign as it helped prove the recreational area use purpose.

Just all different ways to go about it.

1 Like