Gravel Roads in New Zealand

[ispyisail]

Hi all

How do we label gravel roads in New Zealand?

In rural area's 'i've been mostly using "Primary Street" and or sometimes "street"

I have wondered if I should be using "Dirt Road"

Thoughts?

[amartinnz]

I used to use unpaved road, but then Waze will not route over them by default, and they also don't appear on the client (with auto zoom enabled) unless you are on them and driving slowly, so I have gone back to using street (or primary if they are an A-B transit road).

In the civilised world, an un-paved road is something that you need a hilux or a donkey to use, but in New Zealand, gravel roads are still the main method of transport in many areas (Northland!)

[ispyisail]

lol

are you calling us donkeys?

[ispyisail]

but you do bring up a good point

re:my other post

Just because something is technically more correct dosn't always mean it will look or function better. -re:option 1

[amartinnz]

are you calling us donkeys?

Some Americans would freak if they had to drive on our gravel roads and think they need something with tracks to get through.

I grew up in Northland, and learned to drive on gravel roads, and also raced rally cars for a few years. I think some of the best roads in New Zealand happen to be gravel (State Highway 38 to Lake Waikaremoana) and are often the fastest way to get from A to B (Kaikohe Road in Northland).

I would hate to think that by marking them as unpaved, tourists to New Zealand would never get to see them

[ispyisail]

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=20125

[ispyisail]

I'm coming up with a plan

[pcp192]

I agree with using Streets for the gravel roads. It'd be great if we could get another classification for these as the Dirt Track is not appropriate for all the reasons already stated.
I use Streets for all gravel roads that I've mapped. We have some high quality 'unpaved' roads in NZ!

[ispyisail]

I've had a re-think and changed the wiki

Routes are calculated on drives not road types, therefore if a road is gravel it will take longer to drive therefore unlikely to be selected before a sealed road.............

But waze can't tell what type of vehicle you are driving so the need for a dirt option.............