Groundspeak Portal

The group Alley Cats is interested in starting a discussion about a proposed category Alley & Lanes. And is recruiting Officers and Members.

Alley/Lanes are narrow pedestrian passageways typically between buildings that are too narrow for normal motor vehicles to pass through. Or vehicles are prohibited from that area.
Alleys/Lanes may have commercial or retail outlets lining them or may serve as pathways for pedestrians. Sometimes alleys are gated to reduce crime at night-time.
They seem to fit in with the waymarking slogan "...unique and interesting locations in the world" but as newbies we might be way off the mark!

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lanes_and_arcades_in_Melbourne_city_centre for examples of the many alleys in that city centre. Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alley.

Preliminary ideas about posting a waymark are that it requires an actual visit with photos looking into the alley from both ends. Visits would be similar.

Comments? Ideas?

A few issues to consider:

Precisely how do you define an alley?   My experience has been that if you can't have a clear, objective definition of the object/site being waymarked all kinds of things will be submitted not really wanted, pushing the envelope.  It gets really confusing.  And, I think that coming up with a good definition, even with examples of what is and what is not acceptable, will be difficult.

Prevalence.  Especially in some areas, alleys are just so common and ubiquitous that one could do hundreds of them in a very small area.  And, I don't think there is a good way of choosing which ones to include, and which ones to exclude without being entirely way too subjective about it.

Coords and photos.  Where in the alley do you want coords?  Accuracy could be a problem between tall buildings.  What kind of photos do you want?  I could see getting good quality photos being a challenge in dark, narrow places.  And, is there really anything interesting to see?

Interesting or Informative:  Well, that may be in the eye of the beholder, but I'm not sure this would be either.  Sure, I've seen some quaint ones, but they're overshadowed by the rest.

Global.  Certainly alleys exist all over the world, depending on one's definition.  I could go crazy trying to waymark Korean alleys.  Sometimes I think there are more of them than regular streets! 

So, I'm not entirely opposed to such a category; I just think you have some major hurdles to overcome to make this a viable category.

silverquill:

A few issues to consider:
...

I think I'd echo all of the above sentiments.  Prevalence and "interesting/informative" are tricky.  For instance the old City of London has some very interesting alleyways of historic significance, but outside of there I can think of many, many more that have negative wow factor.  

The problem is you might end up with really subjective criteria, and/or really mundane waymarks.

By the way, another (North of England) word is "ginnel".

Maybe the management team can outline why these would be of interest to people.

We have quite a lot of categories that seem created for the purpose of creating a category and nothing more. I hope that is not the case here.

BQ

In Detroit most alleys are a route for the trash collector to get the trash from the back of the house in neighborhoods where they don't like trash in front of the house.

Wow!

It's great to be so warmly welcomed to waymarking. And, thanks for all your helpful responses. We'll be working on a more detailed description of what an Alley/Laneway Category is based on them.

Here are those Alley/Laneway links we provided again:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lanes_and_arcades_in_Melbourne_city_centre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alley

Thanks again, it means a lot to us.

If the category goes through, I hope someone posts "diagon-alley"... I',m a huge Harry Potter fan

The links provided scream there will be issues with subjectivity since there is very little standardization between the various sites.

I will also add fuel to the fire with other pedestrian ways such as the Skyway System in Minnneapolis (elevated) and the Toronto PATH System (underground).  They serve a similar function.

Again, I will echo the concerns about where coordinates will be taken.

yes, well in my experiences these may also be called:
-places bums relieve themselves
-do i have a 'mug me' sign on my back
-shady area to assault someone--leave the undergarments on top of the pile to let others know its occupied.

chapterhouseinc:

yes, well in my experiences these may also be called: -places bums relieve themselves -do i have a 'mug me' sign on my back -shady area to assault someone--leave the undergarments on top of the pile to let others know its occupied.

Sounds like you are hanging out in the wrong types of alleys      I have found alleys at both extremes and sometimes the extremes are in close proximity to each other.  I was recently in a city which some very nice alleys with small shops, bars etc along the alleys and then the next alley was just dumpsters.

hey, if there wasnt a cache to find there, believe me, i wouldnt be there....we find them during the day, its not so bad...

What's the difference between an alley and a narrow street?  In Korea, we have a lot of narrow streets, some too narrow for cars, but I'm not sure they're alleys. 

In my little Idaho college town, there were alleys that went down the middle of every residential block, unpaved, provided access to garages and garbage cans.

Dead end alleys.

I think there is an endless variation, and trying to define these is next to impossible.