Observation: In a general sense, in GVRD, Waze’s road classifications map 1:1 with the road atlas as follows:
DRA | Waze
local | street
collector | PS
arterial | mH
highway | MH
freeway | FW
There are, however, major divergences between DRA and Waze, particularly at the level of MH (for GVRD at least; this is the only part of the province I’ve examined in detail). For example, the Waze model uses a number of MH in downtown Vancouver to prioritize certain roads that are not prioritized in BC’s road atlas: DRA vs Waze. E.g.: Howe St and Seymour St in NS directions, and Georgia St in EW direction are MH in Waze, but are simply arterials (i.e. mH) in DRA. This accords with my personal experience of these roads. I don’t see why Howe & Seymour are deserving of MH while Burrard, Richards, Homer, for example, are not. (Or more precisely, I don’t see why they aren’t all mH). Local knowledge driving downtown suggests that the DRA classification is more realistic than Waze’s current classification, and that routing in downtown Vancouver might potentially be improved by equalizing road classifications to prohibit the routing engine from potentially applying any transition penalties or other biasing mechanisms related to road type.
This is one particular example, but many others could equally be illustrated. The point is that, inasmuch as road classification may affect routing, certain roads would tend to be prioritized because of their current classification, when both local knowledge and the government’s own FC DB indicate that (in this particular case, but probably in many others as well) routing could be improved by harmonizing the Waze model to the government’s DRA.
Questions: Can the DRA be considered a definitive FC source for GVRD? Should we align Waze’s roads to the DRA’s classification scheme? (My vote would be yes.)
Typically, we have used arterial to mean both mH and MH, using local knowledge (when the road map doesn’t define a major arterial and minor arterial) to differentiate them.
I haven’t looked at this resource yet, so I don’t know how much it would reduce the MH count – typically MH seems to be about the same or a bit more in a properly classed city (take a look at Detroit as an example).
I’d also suggest checking the Vancouver city’s definitions – if their functional classification defines mA vs MA, then we should consider that as overriding the province’s limited definitions.
Local knowledge for downtown Vancouver would suggest that mH is more appropriate than MH, aligning with the province’s classification scheme. I would prefer to see all the downtown roads, include Georgia St and Lions Gate Bridge into North Van, classified as the same road type.
Vancouver is a bit of an anomaly in terms of its urban architecture, in that it lacks the well developed highways leading into the city centre. Other than the (soon to be defunct) Georgia St Viaduct, we have no real dedicated arterial roads into the city centre. Removing any FC biases in the routing algorithms could only benefit routing in Vancouver, especially for commuters.
I can’t find anything online in terms of Vancouver’s own road classification, unfortunately. If you know of any resources, please point me to them. Absent any explicit direction from the city, I’d suggest that the province’s Atlas is a good resource and we should align the Waze map to it. At least for City of Vancouver, it certainly aligns with this editor’s experience.
We can look at other cities in the province to see how different resources compare and then decide how much of the provincial DRA to use. As with our recent discussion for Victoria, we can use these resources as a starting point and adjust where routing doesn’t make sense. I did an FC update for Nanaimo a while ago so I know where that FC map is and we also have one for Victoria.
@codgerd, there is a logical reason to have some higher road types to provide preferential routing through the city. We could also look at heavy vehicle routes to help decide which routes should have a higher priority.
It will be interesting to see what DoctorZoomZoom has to say about Victoria. I don’t think he really liked the FC from waze or the city. I’m also not a huge fan of seeing lots of FC changes at city limits, which is a potential issue in the Greater Victoria Area due to the number of municipalities involved, and there may also be discrepancies between Vancouver, North Vancouver and West Vancouver, not that I’ve looked that hard at this stage.
