A right-of-way is any ground, owned outright or by easement, intended for public access. For example, a street right-of-way would be the (usually 66-foot wide) tract of land in which the street is located. Mostly, the public (city) owns this land except in older rural areas, where the land on which the road is located is often privately owned. Right-of-way are platted, so the ROW can exist without a road being built within it. You can have rights of way for railroads or bike paths or foot paths, such as a mid-block connection we put in a new subdivision plat. Here in lake country, shoreline subdivisions often put in access from the road to the lake, so that "uphill" residents would have lake access rights. It all gets pretty complex.