Additional Information (if any):
I am requesting the immediate and permanent removal of this Wayspot from the live map. While the anchor structure is a local temple landmark, the immediate physical environment presents some severe safety concerns that directly violate Niantic’s core safety and pedestrian accessibility criteria. Correcting the coordinates has not resolved these underlying dangers.
I have attached three photographic proofs documenting three critical safety infractions that make this location completely invalid to host a 45-minute active Gym:
CRITICAL EMERGENCY SERVICE BOTTLENECK (Image 1 & 3):
The entire length of this street is an exceptionally narrow service corridor measuring under 3 meters wide. It is strictly a single-vehicle width lane. There is zero clearance for two vehicles to pass each other, and absolutely no pull-over space. When players park or stand in the road during long-duration Gym events, the entire road is instantly choked. Emergency services, fire engines, or rescue vehicles would be blocked with no way to bypass a single idling car.
TOTAL LACK OF PEDESTRIAN ACCESS & ACTIVE FALL HAZARD (Image 1 & 2):
This location completely breaches Niantic’s requirement for safe pedestrian access. There is no paved sidewalk or designated footpath anywhere on this street. On the left side, the terrain drops off into unpaved, uneven dirt mounds, low-hanging foliage, and electrical utility poles. On the right side, a massive, deep, concrete drainage trench runs completely uncovered directly along the walls. Because players have no safe space to stand, they are forced to loiter directly in the center of the active vehicle lane while distracted by their phones.
MUNICIPAL WATER TANK ACCESS INTERFERENCE (Image 2 & 3):
Image 3 reveals the most severe public safety issue: this exact narrow road serves as the sole, critical access pathway for vital public utility infrastructure—the municipal overhead water tank/tower. Image 2 proves that vehicles are already parking and obstructing the narrow boundaries of this path. Allowing an active in-game Gym at this location invites crowds that bottleneck the exact access route required by municipal maintenance trucks, utility workers, and emergency tankers to service this vital water facility.
Because this location represents liability that directly interferes with emergency access to vital municipal utilities and endangers pedestrians, I request that this Wayspot be retired from the map entirely. Thank you for your review.
It is also important to note that this Wayspot appears to have originally been approved when the surrounding area was still largely undeveloped green-belt land with significantly lower residential density and vehicle activity. Since then, nearby plots have been developed, the lane now serves active residential access and municipal utility movement, and the present-day environment no longer appears suitable for prolonged Gym-related player gatherings under Niantic’s pedestrian safety expectations.
We are seeing a lot of removal requests on the forum for gyms specifically. If this temple isn’t safe to access, then neither is that water tower pokestop. But you haven’t asked here for the pokestop to be removed.
Hello @hankwolfman,
Thank you for your question and for checking the location! I appreciate the opportunity to clarify the physical layout of this area.
The Google Street View angle you shared shows a section slightly further back from the actual temple. While it looks like an open space, that dirt area is actively used as a parking zone for the residential houses adjacent to the temple (as you can see from the tempo trucks parked there). This forces any pedestrians to walk in the active driving lane.
Regarding your points on safety:
Standing Inside the Temple: Standing inside the temple courtyard to play a mobile game is not feasible or culturally appropriate, as it disrupts active worshipers, daily rituals, and temple foot traffic. Furthermore, GPS drift routinely pulls players outside onto the street.
The Entrance Bottleneck: The main issue occurs exactly at the entrance gateway shown in my first image. Right at that point, the paved lane narrows strictly down to under 3 meters with an open concrete drainage trench on the right side and utility poles on the left.
The physical environment directly at the Wayspot interaction zone simply cannot accommodate Gym event traffic safely. Thank you again for taking a closer look at this case!
Hello @SlimboyFat71,
Thank you for sharing your perspective! I appreciate you bringing this up, as it highlights a very important distinction in Niantic’s criteria regarding pedestrian safety and transit rights.
There is a significant difference between a local resident using a street for normal transit (walking through from point A to point B) versus a mobile game anchoring an attraction that encourages groups of people to stop, cluster, and remain stationary in a highly restricted vehicle lane.
As can be verified directly on the map, this temple is located roughly 300 meters deep inside a narrow residential layout corridor away from the main public road. Because it is buried so deep within this tightly confined grid, there are absolutely no alternative safe zones, public plazas, or wide sidewalks for players to step into.
While a regular pedestrian walking down the road is focused on their surroundings and can easily step aside for an approaching vehicle, a cluster of players focused on a 44-minute Raid Boss entirely bottlenecks a single-lane road under 3 meters wide. This artificial gathering creates an unavoidable obstruction.
Thank you again for the feedback—this is exactly why a manual human staff review of the unique spatial layout is so necessary for this case.
Street View is not great but there does look to be places that players can stand and be safe.
If players are causing a issue, as I state above the correct process is to get a Property Owner to report it, once their credentials have been checked Niantic will remove it.
As you have said that the problem is that it is a Gym they also have the option to downgrade it to be a Stop only (for Property Owner requests).
Thanks for the appeal, @IshB28! We took another look at the Wayspot in question and decided that it does not meet our criteria for removal at this time.
