HOV lane navigation

[attheyard]

attheyard wrote: The beltway around the city is almost never faster, but you have to do it if you're alone in the car. Waze doesn't know this. So why is I66 left as a routing option?


This is not quite true as it depends on where you are going. If you are going TO DC, it's a lot different than if you are going AROUND DC. I would never downtown if going from Fairfax to Annapolis, the beltway is always faster if traffic is moving at speed. But if going to DC before or after the HOV restriction time, I would take I-66 as it is faster

True, this should have been qualified; if you are going to the other side of DC (a la Annapolis to Fairfax) the beltway is likely faster. But if you are going into DC and stopping, the routes are very different.

It seems that the current system is probably the best possible way to do things. If waze were to implement HOV road marking similar to toll lane marking in the future it would be nice.

[MysticCobra]

Agreed.

[MysticCobra]

UPDATE: While travelling from the Baltimore MD area to Fairfax VA, on Sunday waze told me to take the 495 Express Lanes South starting just below the VA/MD state line near Potomac MD/Great Falls VA. I was surprised but took it anyway. It even got my exit right onto I-66 West.

I'm okay with this but find it strange as the lanes are not visible on the Live Map. What's going on?

[CBenson]

The appearance of the live map is notoriously unreliable. The updates are unpredictable and vary from zoom level to zoom level.

[MysticCobra]

Good to know...

Also, the best news is that waze DID mark the route with the TOLL icon in the corner and it did suggest alternative slower routes. EXCELLENT!

[istpsu2009]

source: http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Carp ... nsit_lanes

Carpool, HOV, Transit lanes
Carpool lanes, High-occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes, and Transit lanes are road lanes reserved for cars carrying more than the driver. The number of required passengers in the vehicle can vary depending on the specific road.
Although currently Waze does not support the requirements of routing over these types of lanes, there are plans to add support for them in the future.
As an interim measure, these lanes should be added to the map as separate roads, with the road type as Parking Lot Roads. This means that if you are not currently in one of these lanes the routing will avoid it, but if you choose to get into the lane, the routing will work correctly.
Supporting these lanes is a priority for Waze, and they are aware of the problems caused by such lanes.
A complete solution needs to consider the following factors:

The driver would need to tell the Waze client app how many passengers are present in the car for that trip. Waze would only offer routes over carpool lanes when there are sufficient passengers to be eligible
A new road type of "carpool lane" would be added with an entry for how many passengers are required to use it
The ability to change the direction of the car pool lane automatically based on time of day and day of week. This is also necessary for other roads
The ability to set the minimum passenger count to zero (meaning the road is open to all drivers) based on time of day and day of week
As car pool lanes are often adjacent to normal roads, GPS tracking is not sufficient to differentiate the two. For accurate road speeds Waze needs to assume you are using the car pool lane when you have passengers (and/or based on your speed)
HOV lanes are being merged with Toll lanes (HOT lanes) and the user needs to be able to select if they want to allow toll roads. The map needs the ability to track multiple lane restrictions (HOV and/or Toll) for the same road rather than defining the road as either an HOV or a Toll lane.

source: http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Carp ... nsit_lanes