Launching today – a new citizen project to map Britain’s worst and non-existent paths. Our crowdfunder needs you!
Slow Ways is doing a brilliant job of showing people good and recommended ways to go. But you are bound to have come across places and instances where there simply is not a good enough way to go.
All too often paths are inaccessible, undesirable and non-existent. At worst paths are actually dangerous.
From private land and fast roads to cows and fences, we can all think of things that get in our way.
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That is why we are creating Make Ways – a new citizen project to map where new and better paths, trails and ways are needed. While Slow Ways is about sharing good ways to go, Make Ways will be for mapping where you’d like to go, but can’t.
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People will be able to plot where they’d like to be able to go and map things that either help or hinder journeys by foot, wheel or bicycle. They’ll be able to discuss, vote and act on what is shared.
We need your support to bring Make Ways to life. Paths for All have already promised two-thirds of what we need to build and launch the Make Ways web platform. We now need to raise the rest.
Today we are launching a crowdfunding campaign to raise at least £30,000.
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The Slow Ways team would be very grateful if you were able to support the Make Ways crowdfunding campaign – and ideally as soon as possible. The crowdfunder runs until the 2nd of January, and it’s all or nothing – if we don’t raise the full £30,000 we’ll get nothing! The sooner you can support it, the more confidence other people will have to support it too.
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Thanks to Aviva’s Community Fund, your donation will be matched. If you donate £50 we’ll get at least £100 towards the campaign. We will hit our target if just 300 people donate an average of £50, thanks to this match funding.
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We have some great rewards to thank you for your support. You’ll have contributed to a project that will make clear where people want to go. And you can also choose from amongst these lovely gifts:
- Being a Make Ways Founder and having your name on the website
- Limited-edition gold and black maps of Britain and Scotland
- Exclusive fluorescent orange map of Scotland or Britain
- Slow Ways Baggers’ Book
- Showing your support as a group or organisation
- A walk and talk with Slow Ways founder Dan Raven-Ellison
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If you are willing to support Make Ways please follow these steps.
- Find out more here, make a donation and leave a comment
- Share the Crowdfunder, including the hashtag #MakeWays
- We’ll keep you updated and ask for your feedback
- We’d love your help with mapping ways you’d love to go, but can’t
What would you use Make Ways for? Let us know!
Where do you wish you could walk but can’t? What are the things that block you? Do you have any photos of them? We’d love to hear your access disaster stories, or dream routes that don’t exist but should. Please do tell us here, and your experiences will help us to explain Make Ways to more people.
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We at Slow Ways are so excited about Make Ways. Rather than taking long detours or playing it safe, we’ll soon have the tools to map what we think could be better. We have the potential through Make Ways to create new and better paths that ultimately will help more people to get out and walk, wheel, or cycle. Just like with Slow Ways we are summoning citizen power and doing this ourselves!
Please support this important work. Every contribution counts.
