Construction and a caching

[+IANNA]

Greetings, I just reactivated on of my caches this weekend after it was muggled. Anyways it is in a park that apparently the main road to the parking lot for the this park is under construction. People are still crossing the construction area to park in the parking lot but I'm not sure if it is legal to drive across this area. I have advised on my cache page that you may have to park on a side street and walk a bit to get to the park but what other responsibility do I have as a cache owner other then advising of the construction in the area.

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

Greetings, I just reactivated on of my caches this weekend after it was muggled. Anyways it is in a park that apparently the main road to the parking lot for the this park is under construction. People are still crossing the construction area to park in the parking lot but I'm not sure if it is legal to drive across this area. I have advised on my cache page that you may have to park on a side street and walk a bit to get to the park but what other responsibility do I have as a cache owner other then advising of the construction in the area.

What you have described so far sounds good to me! That is exactly what I would do, but, since I am hopelessly neurotic about such things, I would likely have put the cautionary text about construction along the park entrance road in 54 point bold red font on the cache listing page!

 

And, in any case, in what is surely a very sad and pitiful sign of the beginning of the End of Days, the tragic but inevitable reality is that the vast majority of modern-day cachers never bother to read cache listing pages anyway, and instead simply download barebone cache information such as name, waypoint ID and waypoint coordinates from the GC site onto their GPS receivers, minus all other information. So, for this bizarre new-fangled breed of heathen soulless Godless hooligan cachers, all your efforts in placing the warning on the cache listing page are for naught anyway, since none of them have ever read a cache listing page in their lives, and, in fact, they would not recognize a cache listing page if it bit them on the nose! Truly, the End Times are upon us!

[+J-Way]

If it's not legal to drive across the construction area, what makes you think it is legal/safe to walk across it?

 

Anyway, contractors almost always completely block off access to construction sites unless the intent is to leave it available for public access. If the area is unsafe they don't want to get sued if some idiot drives or walks off the side of an unfinished bridge or into an uncovered ditch. Plus they don't want people to steal their equipment and tools. Therefore, if people are regularly driving across the area and the city/contractor hasn't put up barricades, then most likely they don't care and you can drive across it with no problems.

 

So put a warning up about the construction and sleep soundly at night. But I'll also agree with Vinny in that it's astonishing how many people don't bother to read descriptions. He did leave out that lots of people also include the D/T, Container size, and hint as part of their bare-bones download.

[+IANNA]

If it's not legal to drive across the construction area, what makes you think it is legal/safe to walk across it?

 

Anyway, contractors almost always completely block off access to construction sites unless the intent is to leave it available for public access. If the area is unsafe they don't want to get sued if some idiot drives or walks off the side of an unfinished bridge or into an uncovered ditch. Plus they don't want people to steal their equipment and tools. Therefore, if people are regularly driving across the area and the city/contractor hasn't put up barricades, then most likely they don't care and you can drive across it with no problems.

 

So put a warning up about the construction and sleep soundly at night. But I'll also agree with Vinny in that it's astonishing how many people don't bother to read descriptions. He did leave out that lots of people also include the D/T, Container size, and hint as part of their bare-bones download.

 

Well every side street up to the park says closed to through traffic. But the construction appears to end about a block or so past the entrance to the parking area. So if you want to walk an extra block you can cross the street at an area that is not under construction.

[+J-Way]

Well every side street up to the park says closed to through traffic. But the construction appears to end about a block or so past the entrance to the parking area. So if you want to walk an extra block you can cross the street at an area that is not under construction.

The bit I put in bold is the key, I believe. If the signs had said "Road Closed", then the road is closed and no traffic is allowed. "Closed to Through Traffic" usually means that local traffic is allowed. Put another way, you can typically drive through the area if you have no other way to access a residence, place of business, or similar (like a park), but you should avoid the area if there is an alternate route.

 

Of course, I'm talking about general rules, and I haven't seen your specific location. If the area looks unsafe then you should act accordingly.

[+Confucius' Cat]

Greetings, I just reactivated on of my caches this weekend after it was muggled. Anyways it is in a park that apparently the main road to the parking lot for the this park is under construction. People are still crossing the construction area to park in the parking lot but I'm not sure if it is legal to drive across this area. I have advised on my cache page that you may have to park on a side street and walk a bit to get to the park but what <unnecessary word deleted> responsibility do I have as a cache owner <unnecessary words deleted>

None

Edited May 6, 2008 by Confucius' Cat

[+Vinny & Sue Team]

If it's not legal to drive across the construction area, what makes you think it is legal/safe to walk across it?

 

Anyway, contractors almost always completely block off access to construction sites unless the intent is to leave it available for public access. If the area is unsafe they don't want to get sued if some idiot drives or walks off the side of an unfinished bridge or into an uncovered ditch. Plus they don't want people to steal their equipment and tools. Therefore, if people are regularly driving across the area and the city/contractor hasn't put up barricades, then most likely they don't care and you can drive across it with no problems.

 

So put a warning up about the construction and sleep soundly at night. But I'll also agree with Vinny in that it's astonishing how many people don't bother to read descriptions. He did leave out that lots of people also include the D/T, Container size, and hint as part of their bare-bones download.

You make some good points. I agree that if the contractors or the park system, or both, do NOT want park visitors traveling that road in vehicles and on foot, they will usually, if only for legal liability reasons, go to great lengths to mark the roadway as closed and unusable to the public.

 

And yes, I did omit to list D/T, container size and hint as part of what many of these modern paperless folks download to their handheld thingamijigs. I am, nonetheless, stunned that this modern breed of cachers would dare to tackle a cache without fully reading the entire cache listing page. Very strange, and, to me, very dysfunctional!