A colourful grid of friendly icons showing walking, maps, paths, nature, community, inclusion, shared knowledge, care, support and improvement. Diverse people explore routes, help each other, share maps, care for places, exchange ideas and enjoy journeys together.

Update 10: What principles should we be guided by?

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by

Dan Raven-Ellison, Good Ways CEO
in ,

So far we’ve mostly shared updates on how Good Ways will look, work and feel.

In this post we ask how you think we should be.

In addition to our legals, terms and conditions we will publish a set of guiding principles. Our principles will set out the ideas and values that will shape our culture and how we do things – both outdoors and online.

Some examples of allied and adjacent organisations that have published principles include:

On this website we have already communicated some principles.

  • Good Ways is for everyone, but everyone is different
  • Good Ways should help us care for ourselves and each other
  • Good Ways get better when knowledge is shared

All of these short examples can be extended to give more details. As an example, we want knowledge to be clear, honest and accurate, and we have already committed to make route knowledge available to everyone for free and under an open data license.

We would love to hear your suggestions for what our principles should include.

How should we treat each other? What responsibilities do we have when using a route or sharing route information? How should we care for people, places and nature? How should data be treated? What should Good Ways itself promise to do?

As ever, rough thoughts, examples and half-formed ideas are very welcome.

Please post your suggestions by completing this short form or commenting below before the end of July 19th.

We’ll collect responses and propose some draft principles for comment in a future update.

Thanks very much.

Comments

7 responses to “Update 10: What principles should we be guided by?”

  1. Phil Steer avatar
    Phil Steer

    I have recently finished reading Alastair Humphreys’ latest book, Unwilded, and was struck by how perfectly his philosophy on local connection aligns with the vision of Good Ways.

    I was struggling to articulate this, so I hope you will forgive me for using AI to help draw out and draft the following. It’s not exactly how I’d have phrased it, but it’s a lot better than I could have managed in the time!

    Attention Precedes Responsibility

    We believe that connection begins on the ground. By encouraging people to step onto our pathways and pay deliberate attention to their immediate surroundings, we build the local understanding and care that naturally inspires long-term community stewardship.

    Proximity Over Pristine

    We do not need remote wilderness to find connection; we just need a route to walk. We focus our energy on reclaiming, celebrating, and utilizing the mundane, everyday pathways and urban trails right on our doorsteps, transforming routine journeys into meaningful experiences.

    Grow the Handprint through Active Journeys

    While minimizing environmental harm is vital, our primary focus is on positive creation. By activating and improving our local pathways, we create a positive “handprint”—fostering healthier habits, stronger community bonds, and paving the way for natural rewilding along our routes.

    Reject the Depleted Journey

    We refuse to accept neglected paths, fractured trails, or uninspiring concrete corridors as the status quo for our daily travel. We commit to observing, remembering, and restoring the quality of our local pathways, intentionally pushing the baseline of our community infrastructure upward.

    1. alastair humphreys avatar
      alastair humphreys

      Thanks Phil!!
      This is all really interesting stuff. 👍

  2. Rowena Macaulay avatar
    Rowena Macaulay

    Also may be useful (taken or adapted from the principles of universal design):

    Equitable – content that is useful to and usable by people with diverse abilities.
    Flexible – accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities
    Simple and intuitive to use

  3. Rowena Macaulay avatar
    Rowena Macaulay

    Access to nature and to green space as a right for all
    A universal approach to accessible design
    Recognition of diversity as the norm

    These are additional to, or elaborations on principles already posted.
    Regarding accessibility/design, I’ve tried to get away from using the term ‘inclusion/inclusive’, as it always implies an add-on i.e. something or categories of people we should check we’ve covered after the fact. I know never intended that way, but has become somewhat cliched?
    If diversity is the norm then that is the starting place for all thinking and all design.

    The first two which relate to design may seem less relevant to Good Ways since we are not necessarily in the business of constructing routes, rather reporting on them. But once established, Good Ways may very well have a role in informing aspects of the design or connectivity of routes, so I still think such principles are relevant, and of course they inform software design etc too

  4. tobytwigger avatar
    tobytwigger

    On the tech side, I’d love for Good Ways to avoid using US tech giants where possible to keep data private – not sure if others have experience with it, but using something like Matomo instead of Google Analytics seems to be much more privacy focussed.

  5. John Bone avatar
    John Bone

    Off the top of my head I suppose core principles should revolve around, in no particular order:

    i. Health/healthier lifestyle.
    ii. Fingertip knowledge of/directions to/directions through places to walk/cycle/run/swim/etc.
    iii. Enjoyment of nature/outdoors. (Avoid words like ‘passion’ or ‘love’ because they’re to full-on and off putting for newcomers and conjure up images of sub-18min park-run wankers.)
    iv. Easy way to discover places to walk/cycle/run/swim/etc.
    v. Inclusive community of friendly people with similar interests.

    1. Rowena Macaulay avatar
      Rowena Macaulay

      Having argued against use of ‘inclusive’ (below), It feels fine here i.e. ‘an inclusive community of…’. I’d only argue though that we may – and indeed are likely to have – very diverse interests rather than similar, other than the shared one of wanting to be outdoors exploring new routes and sharing familiar ones.

      Maybe then it’s the representation of diverse interests within this single unifying aim and shared commitment to a set of principles….

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