Vancouver Alleyways

[STi88]

Hi VanWaze,

I'm wondering how we should handle all the alley ways in Vancouver.

I think we can copy what San Diego is doing...

Here in San Diego we are making all Alleys as follows with excellent results:

* Road type - Parking Lot Road
* Name - Alley
* Directionality - actual directionality like any other road
* Turns - actual turns allowed like any other road

By using this method this keeps Waze from routing on to or through an Alley. But this does allow routing off of an Alley if you are driving in the Alley.

We have thousands of Alleys set in this manner in San Diego.

Can we agree on this?

[STi88]

I think leaving it no name is better.

[doctorkb]

The trouble with leaving it no name is that when the client is giving instructions, the road adopts the name of the next named road.

Consider this: you're in a parking lot just off an alleyway. You're going to turn left into the alley, then turn right onto 123 Street.

If the alley is unnamed, you'll get:
Turn left at 123 Street
then once you're in the alley:
Turn right at 123 Street

Even more confusing is when you're going to turn left off of 123 Street into the alley. You'll get:
Turn left at 123 Street

FYI: a parking lot road is not unroutable -- Waze will still route with it to get you to your destination. So if a GPS point is closer to the alley than the street the destination is on, the directions will route the user to the back of the building. Hence why alleys are not supposed to be mapped at all, and I've removed any that were there from Prince George, Kelowna and Edmonton.

[james_8970]

This is just my opinion, as this seems to vary from individual to individual and region to region. I've been adding back lane as private roads in the past as URs pop up, but I don't make them otherwise. I've seen them marked as private roads, services roads and now I see that some places are using the parking lot road type.

The problem I have with alleyways is that when Waze data for a city is in its infancy (most Canadian cities at this point) and there is little traffic/speed data and improper turn restrictions everywhere, Waze will be far more likely to route people down these side streets. Once traffic data matures and improper turn restrictions are removed, I think it'll be safe to add the bulk of these side streets in *residential* areas since speed data should maintain proper routing.

Also something to keep in mind, if you do happen to remove a back lane, PLEASE be sure to delete the junction point. This seems to be a problem in the Vacouver region and other areas that I've been trying to address. These unnecessary junction points will also wreck havok on routing. I'm not directing this message to anyone as I'm unsure who is doing it, just like to post a reminder
James