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Old 08-15-21, 07:42 PM
  #39  
grolby
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In the words of Woody Guthrie:
Well I was walking and saw a sign there
And on that sign it said “private property”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing
That side was made for you and me!
Anyways while Woody was probably right about the morality of private property in general, the law disagrees. And you don’t want to invade someone’s space. There’s a private road a couple miles up the road from me with a number of homes off of it that provides a much safer and prettier way to access the reservation than the state highway you otherwise must take. The notion that this safer riding route should be reserved for the exclusive use of the small handful of people living in the multi-million dollar homes accessed by this road should offend anyone of good taste. We do, after all, live in a wider society. This road is ungated and the homes are set well back from it; there’s no need to ride through anyone’s driveway. So I don’t feel the least bit guilty about using it.

The same would go for condo developments and the like, in my opinion. The private property zealots have a strangely black-and-white view of a socially and legally complex tradition with a lot of variation. Public access to private lands is a very longstanding question and the concept of public right-of-ways and easements on private land to which the public must be allowed unfettered access is neither new nor unusual. In the USA things do tend to be more restrictive, but there are exceptions here. In Britain, public access to footpaths and trails on private land is enshrined in law. In no case has this resulted in the meltdown of society or an orgy of vandalism and murder. In my view it is in fact a lot better for society if landowners are not allowed to imagine themselves as petty emperors but instead must reckon with their being part of a larger society with riches to be shared by all.

So. Use your best judgment. Don’t go through someone’s yard. Don’t go somewhere one of those petty emperors might shoot at you. Be respectful and quiet. All that stuff. Just my opinion.
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