Nope.

Quick question -- I live in a Bay Area suburb. There is a lane that is designated a private road (note, not a shared driveway or anything, just your standard vanilla court, with property lines meeting in the middle of the street). One homeowner on the street is bitching about 'the public' walking down the road. There is a pedestrian cut through between that road and another court. Vehicles can't get through.

It is my understanding that a private road usually just means the city/county doesn't maintain the road and it's the responsibility of the property owners. There's no HOA or anything, and no one's done jack to the road in the 20 years I've lived here. Parts are basically gravel at this point.

Can the public be prevented from walking on this road?

There have been no physical changes in the 20 years I've lived here. The cut through has always been here, etc. It's not like people just started walking in the last year or so. The entire neighborhood was built in the '50s.

Quick question -- I live in a Bay Area suburb. There is a lane that is designated a private road (note, not a shared driveway or anything, just your standard vanilla court, with property lines meeting in the middle of the street). One homeowner on the street is bitching about 'the public' walking down the road. There is a pedestrian cut through between that road and another court. Vehicles can't get through.

It is my understanding that a private road usually just means the city/county doesn't maintain the road and it's the responsibility of the property owners. There's no HOA or anything, and no one's done jack to the road in the 20 years I've lived here. Parts are basically gravel at this point.

Can the public be prevented from walking on this road?

There have been no physical changes in the 20 years I've lived here. The cut through has always been here, etc. It's not like people just started walking in the last year or so. The entire neighborhood was built in the '50s.

By upbringing and ancient outdated and derelict 17th century colonial law, squatters and vandals who take whatever advantage they can get against all human decency and morals are gonna still be in the right....so there is that.

I am opinionated, as I am on the receiving end and my lovely neighbors constantly vandalize (scratch my car in the driveway, steal plants or rip off flowers/fruit) and trash (waste and noise) my property.

Not sure this is Bay Area specific, but probably an adherence to the 'Wild West' past or just plain due to the failed/no-existent social sciences 'education' at so-called 'premier-schools'.

I was able to combat that with modern technology to great success, though :-), as nobody wanted to have footage of their naked ass posted publicly on the town's bulletin board website :-)

Still SAD!

It's unfortunate that your property is being vandalized, but that's a separate issue from any prescriptive easement. And it's not just colonial law that includes such provisions - doesn't Germanic common law include the Wegerecht which is even broader in scope?