Mapping apps: part of the solution to outdoor overcrowding?

During this current crisis there has been much talk of how much exercise we can take, how far we can travel to get there, and whether to visit particular beauty spots and National Parks.

In the UK we are blessed and privileged to have probably the best footpath/ bridleway system in the world. We also have the best mapping in the world: Ordnance Survey (OS). Couple this with the numerous navigation apps available

(as featured in the June issue of TGO).

How hard would it be for the government to work in conjunction with OS? Say, for example, OS offered its app (OS Maps) free for three months. The government could then specify a distance you could travel in a car, say 10 miles, and the public could, with the use of the OS app, discover hundreds of walks within this boundary.

The result could be to spread where people are walking more evenly over the country, avoiding ‘congestion’ around honeypot locations, and at the same time reducing the car miles people are taking to get to the outdoors.