Preferred route never considered?

[andrewski]

There's a 3–4 minute difference in one segment of my weekday route between the highway and the main road, without traffic, but waze insists on directing me to the highway… even when it looks like this:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1339290546.484247.jpg (141.2 KiB) Viewed 614 times

Here are three routes on Google Maps for reference:

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1339290522.205960.jpg (77.35 KiB) Viewed 614 times

I take route 2 at least once a day, so I would think waze would have it by now… especially since it does know my destination.

There aren't any restricted turns anywhere on the route or anything (one thing that's more difficult to scan in the new editor). It does figure out the right route after a few recalculations, so I don't think there are any errors or anything.

Any ideas?

[AlanOfTheBerg]

I'm not sure 3-4 min difference over a 12 min route is considered significant enough to Waze to choose one route over another. The freeway route has known higher speeds, and despite traffic slowdowns, Waze apparently thinks it is still better to stick to the higher speed roadway.

I looked over the routes and didn't find anything significant along SR-9, though most segments were updated by you today, so it's hard to say what the turn restrictions looked like yesterday or last week. Since the map doesn't update by every couple of weeks, I can't say, not having been involved in this area ever before whether things were all good two weeks ago.

Keep in mind, too, that there is no such thing in Waze as a preferred route, just known destinations. One thing you wrote is potentially important: it does "figure it out" after a few recalcs. Typically, if there is an actual map error or restricted turn, Waze will give you the expected route once you pass the junction which has a problem. This isn't always the case, but can be helpful in tracking the location of an issue.

[fvwazing]

Agree with Alan, plus...

There aren't any restricted turns anywhere on the route or anything (one thing that's more difficult to scan in the new editor)

...easy to scan by pressing shift-A.

[andrewski]

I have looked into any problems, but I don't think there are any problematic junctions. I've seen that kind of thing before though.

3–4 minutes without traffic, more like 10 at least with traffic like this. I've followed waze out of curiosity before and it's definitely not great when it's like this. :-/

I guess my main gripe is that the non-highway route isn't even offered when I specifically am looking for alternative routes…

Thanks for the tip, fvwazing!

[AlanOfTheBerg]

Thanks for the tip, fvwazing!

Be careful when using Shift-A in combination with "allow all connections" because in many urban settings, there are lots of intersections or road junctions which do have restricted turns, and "allow all" will wipe them out.

[andrewski]

Thanks for the tip, fvwazing!

Be careful when using Shift-A in combination with "allow all connections" because in many urban settings, there are lots of intersections or road junctions which do have restricted turns, and "allow all" will wipe them out.

Oh, I thought that would just show the restricted turns? What's that do?

Any idea how waze determines alternate routes?

[fvwazing]

Yes, shift-A just SHOWS the turnrestrictions. "Allow all" is the action of selecting a SINGLE junction and pressing "W". Some people, on discovering that you get points for removing restrictions, can not restrain and keep clicking until all red arrows are gone. The area is unroutable after that! Some TRs are not by chance and there is no easy way to get the right state back. (I know, as I am currently in the process of repairing 100s of lost TRs in The Hague and Rotterdam).

For alternate routes some parameters are weighed different so that you get a faster, a shorter and a straighter route presented.

[AlanOfTheBerg]

Thanks for the tip, fvwazing!

Be careful when using Shift-A in combination with "allow all connections" because in many urban settings, there are lots of intersections or road junctions which do have restricted turns, and "allow all" will wipe them out.

Oh, I thought that would just show the restricted turns? What's that do?

As fvwazing wrote, it shows restricted turns, but doesn't show from what segment that red arrow is from. A good editor will never blindly go through and allow all turns at intersections, especially on busy/larger roads which tend to have median barriers which restrict turns. This will often produce bad results, such as dedicated right-turn lane in the US which junctions into a 2-way street. This is pretty common and allows cars to "slip" past the main intersection. However, a less-than-careful editor will simple "allow all" at the end junction. But that then allows Waze to choose a left-hand turn at the end of the segment, which is often a dangerous and outright illegal turn.

Any idea how waze determines alternate routes?

I do not, other than by logic, it searches for the top shortest/fastest routes via the normal algorithm. It appears to then discard certain results if they are too close in time or distance to the top/"winning" route. Unsure if it really works that way, though. I don't think we asked that question at the last meetup...