Waze suggests I drive down alleys

by **kbreit** » Sat Apr 14, 2012 11:08 pm

Last night I was using Waze for some navigation around Chicago and it told me that driving down an alley was the most efficient route. And maybe it was. But it was an alley with large garbage bins on each side, a narrow bumpy road, and a few homeless people in it minding their own business.

I'm not saying that an alley isn't a possible route but it is one that should generally be avoided. Is there a way streets can be labeled as alleys with an option of "Avoid alleys"?

by **bigbear3764** » Sat Apr 14, 2012 11:21 pm

Red arrow restriction at alleys and edit them to a service road is what is recommended.

I too have seen a lot of driving error posts for them, I have been editing the ones on the very north side.

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by **jasonh300** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 5:15 am

bigbear3764 wrote:Red arrow restriction at alleys and edit them to a service road is what is recommended.

I too have seen a lot of driving error posts for them, I have been editing the ones on the very north side.

I don't know where you saw that recommended, but I'd suggest reading the Wiki.

http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Road_Types_%28USA%29

A service road is a frontage road that runs alongside a Freeway or main thoroughfare.

An alley should be set as a Parking Lot Road to prevent routing on it. It's the only way to prevent routing on an alley short of deleting the alley completely from the map.

If an alley, or any other type of road is impossible to drive, it shouldn't be on the map, or should be completely disconnected, and set at a different level from the real roads.

by **bigbear3764** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 12:06 pm

I read it somewhere on here posted and someone else recommended it.

Ok, now I found it. I have gone thru Wiki, mainly for exit ramp naming. Your right, I see now where it is stated under Parking lots. Back to the drawing board and fix all my screw ups.

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by **kbreit** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 4:02 pm

Thanks for the info guys. I changed the alley I drove down to a Parking Lot Road and look forward to the next update.

by **fistonet** » Sat Dec 08, 2012 2:47 pm

I too live in Chicago and find it troubling that Waze suggests driving down alleys. Other GPS's do not have that problem. I suggest Waze finds a better solution than to lead people down alleys. It makes getting to the input destination so difficult that I am ready to split waze.. Yea I know I get what I pay for but at least they need to make a feeble attempt at re-configure it to work better and lead me to my destination rather than to parking my vehicle in an allyway. I have yet to see it show me the address and destination at the end of my route.

by **OldGnome** » Sat Dec 08, 2012 3:28 pm

The earlier posts in this thead suggest the routing is due to maps being crafted incorrectly. It is not an inherent weakness in Waze. If you have knowledge of the area, consider becoming a map editor to improve the maps.

by **bigbear3764** » Sat Dec 08, 2012 5:24 pm

In Chicago, the alleys are set proper as parking lot roads. The reason people get sent down them to get to an address is due to bing having the house marker set back on the property so the alley becomes closer.

You can go to bing and get your address marker moved or go out in front of your house and tap and hold your screen to set current location. Then save as home.

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by **AlanOfTheBerg** » Sat Dec 08, 2012 7:09 pm

Yeah, the posts here give the two reasons why alleys would be used for routing:

1. When used to route through and not as the final destination, it is because the alley is set up as something other than private or parking lot rd.

2. If used for the final destination, then the address or POI coordinates returned by the search provider is closer to the alley than the street. Depending on the neighborhood and where visitors should be directed to get to your location, the private rd/alley may be appropriate or not.

by **failsafe** » Mon Dec 24, 2012 12:58 am

If used for the final destination, then the address or POI coordinates returned by the search provider is closer to the alley than the street. Depending on the neighborhood and where visitors should be directed to get to your location, the private rd/alley may be appropriate or not.

In Chicago, the default is generally not. We've had someone recently jump from editing level 1 to 4 rather quickly seemingly doing nothing but activating alley turns. Alleys here are usually applicable for homeowners with garages, who already know the last few blocks to the destination.

I tell people using Waze to never count on the last few blocks; only that it might know more about traffic conditions and get them to an area faster. In the past 3 weeks, I've been misrouted to alleys for final destinations twice in Chicago.