I have see other pokestops around that are similar to this tunnel/pedestrian path. Is the nomination acceptable?
What was your description and supporting info? And what was your rejection reasons?
One major issue i see is that your photos have watermarks, that is a direct rejection reason. You need to disable that in your phones settings, or crop them off.
Yeah I usually crop the photos, forgot this time.
Rejection Criteria
Wayfarer criteria
This is supporting information
Pedestrian Tunel Between Kiarama Ave & Oxley Ave
A trail through a tunnel underneath the train line to access Kiarama avenue and Oxley avenue
This nomination promotes exercise & exploring in the local community. The location is safe & accessible for pedestrians via the footpath. It’s on public land & not dangerous. This tunnel is part of a walking trail to Gainsbourg, and Oxley Avenue.
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I do see watermarks in your photos, the time stamps, btw, which aren’t allowed. That could be why this was rejected.
Also, I would focus more on this being part of the walking trail in the title, and possibly mention it’s part of the Gainsbourg trail in the description as well. The trail is of more importance that the Aves are, imo.
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Hi,
At first sight this looks like a simple link between the 2 streets, a very useful link but a link.
I couldn’t see where the walking route for Gainsbourgh is so you will have to make that clear.
I re submitted the nomination without the time stamps. With the following.
Gainsborough Walking Trail Tunnel
An important tunnel along the Gainsborough walking trail connecting the suburbs of Kiama Downs and Gainsborough.
A tunnel part of the Gainsborough walking trail which promotes exercise and exploring. The tunnel can be seen on Google Street view & satellite. The location is safe & accessible for pedestrians via the foot path. The location is on public land & not dangerous. This tunnel is part of the popular Gainsborough walking trail to which connects two streets in Kiama Downs. The trail is used frequently by many players and walking trails are eligible wayfer points
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Why would this be eligible even without the timestamp? It is simply a tunnel as far as I can tell. Is there some special historical significance? I would not approve this as a POI since it is just a generic tunnel on a trail. Trail markers are eligible in principle, but not the trail itself.
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On a real trail, i view a pedestrian tunnel as serving the same function as a footbridge. It allows people to keep exploring and exercising. But i don’t know if this is a real trail or just sidewalk.
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But footbridges are also not eligible as far as I can tell, in spite of them being often approved? I see them often in the game, but always reject them on Wayfarer, but maybe I am missing to see why they are eligible?
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We had a similar discussion a few months back which I’ll link here as I think it had some really good points on when and how tunnels annd bridges are best nominated.
You are not reviewing correctly if you automatically reject them without evaluating them. We were given a clarification quite a while ago that footbridges on designated trails aid in exploration. They allow people to keep exercising and exploring over terrain that would have made them stop if there was not a bridge. As someone else said, they can also be scenic spots. If they just help you get from the parking lot to a building, no, that’s doesn’t meet eligibility criteria. But you should be reading the submission and evaluating the area before automatically rejecting anything.
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This is a trail, and it even has its own website.
So, I completely agree with you, that since it allows 1 to keep moving along and exploring, I’d accept this tunnel. It’s not infrastructure in this case.
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If I went there, I’d be glad you showed it to me. So thanks! Tunnels are cool!
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At the risk of beating a dead horse, I would like to get some clarity on this once again, since I am struggling to find an acceptance criteria for either tunnels or bridges. While I agree it allows one to “continuing exploring”, as a thought experiment, perhaps the tunnel is hundreds of feet/meters long. Where should one place the POI? I see a lot of these footbridges getting nominated and accepted, but I just cannot find any acceptance criteria for them.
A tunnel does not seem like a great place to socialize or exercise, but maybe its just me. 
While maybe it helps you to explore, so too does the path itself, and the entire path cannot be nominated. Would be great to get your opinons, since I almost always reject these footbridges or tunnels (even though its not straightforward to do so in the current wayfarer).
I hope @cyndiepooh will share some “normal” quotes about Wayspots on trails.
But I thought I’d drag up something different, to augment. It’s the “Mapping with Niantic Wayfarer” session of the “Lightship 2022” conference, held by Niantic to explain their products to outside app developers (Niantic’s customers).
You can watch the whole thing on Niantic’s YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeqPJ47SXPY&list=PLCyCMgj5D_z7rtq_6UamxxgMNNvEjoulK&index=14
I suggest watching the first 7 minutes, then skip to minute 13 for the Q&A.
Someone asked about wayspots on trails. Niantic said there has to be something unique, to anchor a wayspot, not just a bush, rock, dirt.
It’s an old source, but Q43 of this AMA was about bridges on trails:
https://ingressama.com/ama/oct2019
Given that a bridge and a tunnel on a trail both effectively serve the same function (they’re a manmade structure that facilitates continuing along the trail), I don’t see why tunnels shouldn’t be allowed.
And yes, the criteria reset happened after this AMA, but they still seem to facilitate exercise and exploration by design.
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I was just reading a thread on reddit asking non-Americans what they found annoying about America. Several answers referred to how “unwalkable” American cities are. Some cities are combating this by building trails through wooded spaces. These become pedestrian corridors or highways. Tunnels to go under major roads that have cut off one neighborhood from another for decades are now connecting people to city center areas or vice versa. People are now choosing to walk or bike or skate places that they normally would have driven before. That is all facilitated by better city planning. It’s exactly the kind of world Niantic endorses with their whole philosphy to get outside to exercise and explore. Yes, it should be part of an official trail rather than just infrastructure. But these official trails are popping up everywhere now.
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Well, its pretty clear there:
Q43: There was a recent debate on reddit about “Bridges” being portal candidates. Regular car bridges clearly should not be portals, however what about wooden walking trail bridges throughout a park or nature preserve on the trail/path?
A43: The answer from NIA OPS is, “If they are accessible by foot and expected to be used as part of the trail, they would meet criteria.”
Clearly quite an old post, but thanks for the precedent anyway.
This actually does give me some new ideas for POIs, in the same thread:
Q41: Do coin-operated machine play areas like this in front of stores and in malls make acceptable portal candidates?
A41: According to NIA OPS, “This is similar to the McDonalds' Play Area question - if this is a publicly accessible play area in the mall, yes. If it's part of a commercial business, no.”
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