Android: autozoom by speed on rural roads zooms out too far

[eleavings]

Android Waze version 2.4.0.26
When set to autozoom based on speed, and on a rural road (one lane each direction, undivided), waze will zoom out too far such that the road I am on disappears and it looks like I am driving through a blank area. It would be good if regardless of how the road was labeled, the road you are on always shows up and maybe the cross streets/roads as well.

[pulsarxp]

Android Waze version 2.4.0.26
When set to autozoom based on speed, and on a rural road (one lane each direction, undivided), waze will zoom out too far such that the road I am on disappears and it looks like I am driving through a blank area. It would be good if regardless of how the road was labeled, the road you are on always shows up and maybe the cross streets/roads as well.

Probably a bad road type is selected. Therefore, we have set for all outside built-up areas roads for
major higway.

[AlanOfTheBerg]

This has been brought up before, that the autozoom pulls out too far for rural, highway-speed, non-highway roads. For the US at least, it is not acceptable that a lot of these roads are anything other than street type due to size and traffic counts.

[Crash65]

I am having the same issue with my iPhone iOS5. The road is there when I come to a stop then sometimes partially or fully dissappears when I am at operating speed...

[shrike1978]

I'd rather see an option to specify the detail at different zoom levels the way most standalone GPS systems have. If I want it to display more roads at farther zooms and my device can handle it, let me enable it.

Alternatively, it could be made so that the map always displays the road you're driving on, regardless it's type and zoom level. There could even be extensions to that, like it shows the road your on and the roads connected to the next few intersections.

[chrysrobyn]

I have the same problem with my iPhone in rural upstate New York. Lots of the streets around here are 45-55 MPH zones, and if I go over 40 MPH, the "street" becomes invisible leaving only major and minor highways. I would prefer it if Waze could make the simple change to read the designation of the current street and not let auto-zoom go past that level of detail.

It would be absurd to go around every street in this area and mark them as "minor highway" to work around the UI. They're not minor highways, they're rural streets with farms, stop signs and the occasional snowmobile.

[WeeeZer14]

It would be absurd to go around every street in this area and mark them as "minor highway" to work around the UI. They're not minor highways, they're rural streets with farms, stop signs and the occasional snowmobile.

Would the classification of primary street be appropriate? Primary streets are visible at higher zoom levels than regular streets.

[chrysrobyn]

Would the classification of primary street be appropriate? Primary streets are visible at higher zoom levels than regular streets.

I think I would say no, "primary street" isn't appropriate. Streets in this area are pretty sparsely spaced and lightly traveled, so their speed limits are all 45-55 MPH. Please take a look. Based on the wiki guidelines I've seen, this is not "primary street" territory, although I would welcome the opinion of people with more Waze experience.

Regardless, doesn't it seem to be a reasonable request to ask for the client not to zoom out so far that the current street becomes invisible?

If you click the permalink above, I agree that Saratoga Road / 50 is properly a minor highway. Nearby streets such as Outlet / Charlton, Middleline and Goode don't really "go" anywhere. They're just rural streets with mostly sparse homes and some apple orchards. They don't have "large amounts of use" -- heck, it's not unusual for tractors or snowmobiles to be on these streets. Using the criteria of "stoplights at almost every intersection", someone else could argue that Saratoga Road / 50 should be downgraded to a "primary street".

[WeeeZer14]

The guidelines need some tweaking for rural areas. Come take a look at Knoxville, TN for example of how I added primary streets. I used local transportation maps and their definitions of arterials and collectors. These roads just have less stop signs than the other roads in the area. They are also the roads that most people know of by name so it serves as a landmark. If none of that applies to the roads you have, then I agree they shouldn't be set as Primary.

In the US section of the Country forums we are having a few discussions trying to come up with refined standards for the use of all the different road types.

[flyinriz]

Sorry to rehash an older post but I was thinking about this the other day...

Would the classification of primary street be appropriate? Primary streets are visible at higher zoom levels than regular streets.

I think I would say no, "primary street" isn't appropriate.

I would agree. I don't think that road types should vary based on vicinity to others.

I think an extension of the "always show the road type I'm on" and something I think would be easier is to "zoom out to but not past the road type that I'm on" So let's say (with made up numbers) the client can go from zoom 1 (close) to zoom 10 (far) and at zoom 5 "streets" disappear and that is at 40 MPH. If you are on a "primary street", it would continue to zoom out (and hide the "streets") once you passed 40 but if you turned on a "street" traveling the same speed (over 40), it would cap zooming to zoom 4 regardless of speed (unless it was slower of course).

This could probably be implemented pretty easily. That way, no map hacking is required and the road you are on would never disappear.