Slow Ways is an initiative to create a trusted national network of walking routes that connect all of the UK’s towns and cities as well as thousands of villages.
Slow Ways CIC is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company that is limited by guarantee. Slow Ways CIC has been set up to help make the Slow Ways initiative a success.
We want to inspire and support more people to walk and wheel more often, further and for more purposes.
This Slow Ways website and our associated services help people, groups and organisations collaborate to achieve that goal. Contributors do this by creating, travelling, submitting, commenting on, reviewing, verifying and surveying routes, as well as sharing photos and stories that bring them to life.
We are also developing Make Ways, a pilot citizen project aimed at identifying areas where new and improved paths are needed. Starting in Scotland, the primary aim of Make Ways is to enable more people to enjoy journeys that are good for hearts, minds and the planet.
As Make Ways evolves, our commitment to promoting walking and accessibility will continue to guide its development and integration within the broader Slow Ways framework.
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Here’s a simple summary of our terms of use.
We are working towards publishing all route data (.GPX files) under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license (CC BY-SA 4.0) and versions of the entire network under the Open Data Commons Open Database License. By submitting routes to the Slow Ways network you will be consenting and contributing to this effort.
We may remove, edit or remix the content you share with Slow Ways.You are free to use the Slow Ways logo and identity to promote Slow Ways as long as your activities are not commercial, political or controversial and you don’t speak on behalf of Slow Ways. If you want to be commercial, political, controversial or speak on behalf of Slow Ways, please email us to ask first.
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Updated and adopted by the Slow Ways CIC board on 19th March 2024 .
The basics of Slow Ways CIC’s Services, including Make Ways, what we’re responsible for, what we’re not responsible for, and the rules for using Slow Ways and Slow Ways CIC Services.
Slow Ways CIC’s terms covering privacy, including Make Ways and limitations on use by persons under 16.
Defines improper or abusive behaviour and limitations and conditions on use of personal data for both Slow Ways and Make Ways.
Additional terms if an entity is agreeing to these terms for Slow Ways and Make Ways.
Applying these Terms to your end-users (if you have them) for Slow Ways and Make Ways.
Whether voluntary or involuntary for Slow Ways and Make Ways.
Feedback, severability, and lack of other relationship for Slow Ways and Make Ways.
Legal venue, jurisdiction, and time bar for Slow Ways and Make Ways.
Using Slow Ways and Make Ways at your own risk
Limits on what you can sue Slow Ways CIC for and how much you can get for both Slow Ways and Make Ways.
What happens when these Terms change for Slow Ways and Make Ways.
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Thank you for using Slow Ways and Make Ways. These terms cover your use of services officially operated and provided by Slow Ways CIC. In particular these include :
(together, the “Services”).
By using these Services, you agree to be bound by the following Terms of Service, as updated from time to time (collectively, the “Terms”‘). Please read them carefully. If you don’t agree to these Terms, you may not use the Services.
Please be aware of the following:
Guest users
Are able to view the Slow Ways website including its routes, maps and user generated content.
Registered users
Are able to view the Slow Ways website including its routes and maps. They are also able to submit user generated content, including routes, reviews, surveys, comments and photos.
Contributors
Contributors users who add routes, reviews, surveys, comments, words and photos to Slow Ways. They volunteer this information to Slow Ways but are not hired Volunteers.
All users of Slow Ways are entirely responsible for their own safety. Slow Ways has not been created to meet your individual needs. You use Slow Ways at your own risk.
You should make your own judgments when using Slow Ways. The information displayed on this website is not formal advice and you should not rely solely on it.
We have not checked the safety, accuracy or feasibility of any user generated routes or surveys submitted to Slow Ways.
User generated content posted on the website may not be reliable or trustworthy and may contain errors, be out of date or incomplete.
Slow Ways routes may pass through dangerous places and environments. Complete your own risk assessment to increase your safety. When assessing risk you should take into consideration your (group’s) level of capability, experience, knowledge as well as the landscape and environmental conditions.
You should estimate your own timings based on your average walking speeds.
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We ask that you review the terms of our Privacy Policy, so that you are aware of how we collect and use your information. Certain aspects of the Services require you to have an Slow Ways account and to be logged into that account while you access those aspects. Currently, Make Ways may be accessed through a Slow Ways account. In the future, a separate Make Ways account may be required for certain functionalities.
Because our Services are used by people all over the world, personal information that we collect may be stored and processed in any other country in which we or our nts maintain facilities. If you are a resident of the EU, EEA, or EFTA, your information will be stored and processed in accordance with the GDPR. If you are a resident of another country, you consent to any such transfer of information outside your country by using our Services.
You agree to keep the contact information associated with your Slow Ways account current and complete. Your contact information will be used in accordance with the Privacy Policy.
You must be 13 years or older to use the Services.
If you are at least 13 but under 16 years of age, a parent or other adult authorised by your parent may create an account for you to use. The account must not contain any personal data about you, and you must not add any personal data about yourself. For example, your parent may create an account using your parent’s email address and a username that is not associated with you, which your parent may permit you to use to contribute map edits. For your protection, you are not allowed to use the social aspects of the Services (diary posts, ‘home’ location, mailing lists and forums), but you may contribute edits to the map. You should not reveal any personal data in any communications you have regarding your map edits.
By registering as a user or providing personal information on the Services, you represent that you are at least 16 years old.
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You are solely responsible for your compliance with all applicable laws, regulations, and third party agreements in your use of the Services, including Slow Ways and Make Ways You represent you are not, and are not controlled by, an individual, organization or entity organized or located in a country or territory that is the target of sanctions imposed, or on any restricted or sanctioned party list maintained by the United Kingdom.
You may not use the Services in any manner that could damage or overburden the Services or interfere with any other party’s use of the Services. You agree to abide by Slow Ways CIC’s Usage Policies and other policies posted on the Slow Ways CIC website in conjunction with the Services, including accompanying documentation. Those policies are incorporated by reference into these Terms.
You may not use the Services to:
Through your Slow Ways account, you may have access to some personal data from other Slow Ways contributors. You may not use, store, or process any personal data available through the Services for any purpose other than:
For the avoidance of doubt, you may not use personal data available through the Services to:
Please see Slow Ways CIC’s Privacy Policy for more information.
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If you are entering into this agreement on behalf of your company or another legal entity, you represent that you have the authority to bind that entity to these Terms, in which case “you” will mean the entity you represent.
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You may not permit your end users or other third parties to use the Services in any way that would be a violation of these Terms if done by you, and you agree to take reasonable efforts to prevent such use. You agree to promptly notify Slow Ways CIC in writing if you become aware of any misappropriation or unauthorised use of the Services.
Slow Ways CIC is not responsible for user generated content shared on the Slow Ways website.
Slow Ways CIC may choose to takedown and remove unacceptable content. This may be because we have been notified about or have identified content that:
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You are free to stop using the Services any time.
In addition, we may cancel or suspend your account for violation of any policy as determined by the Data Working Group or other Working Group. Upon cancellation or suspension, your right to use the Services will stop immediately. Attempting to evade a cancellation or suspension (such as by creating a new account or using an alternate account) is a violation of these Terms.
You may not have access to data that you stored on the Services after we cancel or suspend your account. You are responsible for backing up data that you use with the Services.
If your account or access is blocked or otherwise terminated for any reason, your public contributions will remain publicly available (subject to applicable policies), and, unless we notify you otherwise, you may still access our public pages for the sole purpose of reading publicly available content. In such circumstances, however, you may not be able to access your account or settings.
Even after your use and participation are banned, blocked or otherwise suspended, these Terms of Use will remain in effect with respect to relevant provisions, including Sections I-X.
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You agree that we may freely exploit and make available any and all feedback, suggestions, ideas, enhancement requests, recommendations or other information you provide relating to the Services.
If any provision of these Terms is held to be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from these Terms and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions. Headings are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect.
You agree that no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relationship exists between you and Slow Ways CIC as a result of these Terms or your use of the Services. You further acknowledge no confidential, fiduciary, contractually implied, or other relationship is created between you and Slow Ways CIC other than pursuant to these Terms.
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We hope that no serious disagreements arise involving you, but, in the event there is a dispute, we encourage you to seek resolution through the dispute resolution procedures or mechanisms provided by the Services, such as through a Working Group or the Slow Ways CIC Board.
If you seek to file a legal claim against us, you agree to file and resolve it exclusively in a court located in London, United Kingdom. You also agree that English law will govern these Terms, as well as any legal claim that might arise between you and us (without reference to conflict of laws principles). You agree to submit to the personal jurisdiction of, and agree that venue is proper in, the courts located in London, United Kingdom, in any legal action or proceeding relating to us or these Terms.
To ensure that disputes are dealt with soon after they arise, you agree that regardless of any statute or law to the contrary, any claim or cause of action you might have arising out of or related to use of our Services or these Terms must be filed within the applicable statute of limitations or, if earlier, one (1) year after the pertinent facts underlying such claim or cause of action could have been discovered with reasonable diligence (or be forever barred).
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Your use of the Services is at your sole risk. We provide the Services on an “as is” and “as available” basis, and we expressly disclaim all express or implied warranties of all kinds, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We make no warranty that our Services will meet your requirements, be safe, secure, uninterrupted, timely, accurate, or error-free, or that your information will be secure.
We are not responsible for the content, data, or actions of third parties, and you release us, our directors, officers, employees, and agents from any claims and damages, known and unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with any claim you have against any such third parties. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from us or through or from our Services creates any warranty not expressly stated in these Terms.
Any material downloaded or otherwise obtained through your use of our Services is done at your own discretion and risk, and you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from the download of any such material. You agree that we have no responsibility or liability for the deletion of, or the failure to store or to transmit, any content or communication maintained by the service. We retain the right to create limits on use and storage at our sole discretion at any time with or without notice.
We may add, change, replace, remove, or discontinue the features and functions of the Services, including APIs. It is your responsibility to ensure that calls or requests you make to the Services are compatible with then-current APIs and authentication methods, and that you handle responses properly.
Some states or jurisdictions do not allow the types of disclaimers in this section, so they may not apply to you either in part or in full depending on the law.
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The Slow Ways CIC will not be liable to you or to any other party for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages, including but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data, or other intangible losses, regardless of whether we were advised of the possibility of such damage. In no event shall our liability exceed one thousand British pounds (GBP 1000.00) in aggregate. In the case that applicable law may not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability or incidental or consequential damages, the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you, although our liability will be limited to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.
We may modify these Terms and other terms related to your use of the Services (like our Privacy Policy) from time to time, by posting the changed terms on the Slow Ways CIC website. All changes will be effective immediately upon posting to the Slow Ways CIC website unless they specify a later date. Changes will not apply retroactively. Please check these Terms periodically for changes — your continued use of the Services after new Terms become effective constitutes your binding acceptance of the new Terms.
The text of these terms is adapted from the Open Street Map and Wikimedia and available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
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Contributor Terms and License
Slow Ways Contributor Terms 1.2.4
Thank you for your interest in contributing data and/or any other content (collectively, “Contents”) to the Slow Ways initiative (the “Initiative”). This contributor agreement (the “Agreement”) is made between you (“You”) and Slow Ways CIC and clarifies the intellectual property rights in any Contents that You choose to submit to the Initiative in this user account.
1. We respect the intellectual property rights of others and we need to be able to respond to any objections by intellectual property owners. This means that:
(a) Your contribution of data should not infringe the intellectual property rights of anyone else. If you contribute Contents, You are indicating that, as far as You know, You have the right to authorise Slow Ways CIC to use and distribute those Contents under our current licence terms. If You do not have that right, You risk having Your contribution deleted (see below).
(b) Please note that Slow Ways CIC does not have to include Contents You contribute in the Project, and may remove Your contributions from the Initiative at any time. For example, if we suspect that any contributed data is incompatible, (in the sense that we could not continue to lawfully distribute it), with whichever licence or licences we are then using (see sections 3 and 4), then we may delete that data.
2. Subject to Section 3 and 4 below, You hereby grant to Slow Ways CIC a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable licence to do any act that is restricted by copyright, database right or any related right over anything within the Contents, whether in the original medium or any other. These rights explicitly include commercial use, and do not exclude any field of endeavour. These rights include, without limitation, the right to sub-license the work through multiple tiers of sub-licensees and to sue for any copyright violation directly connected with Slow Ways CIC’s rights under these terms. To the extent allowable under applicable local laws and copyright conventions, You also waive and/or agree not to assert against Slow Ways CIC or its licensees any moral rights that You may have in the Contents.
3. Slow Ways CIC may sub-license Your Contents as part of a database and only under the terms of one or more of the following licences: ODbL 1.0 for the database and DbCL 1.0 for the individual contents of the database; CC-BY-SA 4.0; or such other free and open licence (for example, http://www.opendefinition.org/okd/) as may from time to time be chosen by Slow Ways CIC in consultation with active users of the website.
4. At Your or the copyright owner’s option, Slow Ways CIC agrees to attribute You, the copyright owner or, where appropriate the more generalise, Slow Ways Contributors. A mechanism will be provided.
5. Except as set forth herein, You reserve all right, title, and interest in and to Your Contents.
6. To the extent permitted by applicable law, You provide the Contents “as is” without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including without limitation any warranties or conditions of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or otherwise.
7. Subject to any liability that may not be excluded or limited by law, neither You nor Slow Ways CIC shall be liable for any special, indirect, incidental, consequential, punitive, or exemplary damages under this Agreement, however caused and under any theory of liability. This exclusion applies even if either party has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
8. This Agreement shall be governed by English law without regard to principles of conflict of law. You agree that the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (1980) is hereby excluded in its entirety from application to this Agreement. In the event of invalidity of any provision of this Agreement, the parties agree that such invalidity shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this Agreement. This is the entire agreement between You and Slow Ways CIC which supersedes any prior agreement, whether written, oral or other, relating to the subject matter of this agreement.
Our terms are adapted from OpenStreetMap’s License/Contributor Terms, under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license (CC BY-SA 2.0).
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You are free to use Slow Ways route data (.GPX files) for personal and non-commercial use only. They are currently protected by © Crown Copyright / Ordnance Survey. For commercial use please contact Slow Ways CIC.
All words and images you share with Slow Ways are licensed to us and others under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Slow Ways CIC is working towards all routes (.GPX files), and the entire Slow Ways network, being licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0), Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL) and/or similar. Please sign up for updates.
Our documentation is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license (CC BY-SA 4.0). Much of it is adapted from OpenStreetMap who we would like to thank for their generosity.
We require that you use the credit “© Slow Ways Contributors”.
In the future, when versions are released, if you use the database, you must also make it clear that the data is available under the Open Database License. You may do this by linking to this page. Alternatively, and as a requirement if you are distributing Slow Ways in a data form, you can name and link directly to the license(s). In media where links are not possible (e.g. printed works), we suggest you direct your readers to slowways.org (perhaps by expanding ‘Slow Ways’ to this full address) and to opendatacommons.org.
For a browsable electronic map, the credit should appear in the corner of the map.
Our contributors are thousands of individuals. It’s not always practical or reasonable to credit them all, which is why we allow the word “Contributors” to acknowledge their collective contributions.
Slow Ways contributors are reminded never to add data from any copyrighted sources (e.g. Google Maps or printed maps) without explicit permission from the copyright holders.
If you believe that copyrighted material has been inappropriately added to this site, please refer to our takedown procedure.