Dead-end U-turns

[Jay91150]

As you all know, I’m new, so I’m willing to defer to my ‘elders’ so to speak, but I want to find out what the local policy is…

I am running the WME validator script on my editor sessions now, and I keep getting tons and tons of “Dead-end U-Turn” warnings all over southern Alberta.

The validator script refers to this part of the wiki:

U-Turns at the end of dead-end-streets
For the definition of a dead-end-street (or cul-de-sac, or court in the US), please read : https://www.waze.com/wiki/Junction_Style_Guide#Cul-de-sacs
When creating or editing dead-end-streets, please make sure that, at the end node, the small u-turn arrow is RED, with no interrogation mark (question mark).
Due to a bug in Waze, we need to make sure that Waze thinks that a U-turn is not allowed on a dead-end, even though in reality it must be. If you allow the U-turn (green U arrow), or even don’t disable the soft turn (red U with question mark), Waze may route drivers onto the block for no reason, have them make a U-turn, and then continue the trip.

There appears to be more than one person going around and enabling (making green) all the U-turns at the dead-ends of roads all over the place. So I’m wondering, is the wiki out of date (and U-turns should be enabled), or is it a matter of local preference/policy (and the U-turns should be enabled), or are people unaware of this issue (and the U-turns should be disabled)?

Just curious so I can either work, or ignore, all the warnings in my validator sessions/reports.

Thanks

[doctorkb]

They should be disabled.

[davielde]

@Jay91150

So I’m wondering, is the wiki out of date (and U-turns should be enabled), or is it a matter of local preference/policy (and the U-turns should be enabled), or are people unaware of this issue (and the U-turns should be disabled)?

A helpful but often overlooked feature in Validator is the collection of reference links to the wiki and forum when it highlights/reports an issue. For the dead-end u-turn, it points to the Quick-start Guide, but the guide only states that “due to a bug”[…] and then gives the correct guidelines without going into detail of what the bug is.

As doctorkb points out, they should be disabled. I think in most cases though, people are unaware of what enabling the u-turn does, and it is usually a newer editor who ends up setting them enabled because that’s what the large bulbs at the ends of cul-de-sacs are there for in reality. From a navigation standpoint though, a dead-end or cul-de-sac should always be an origin or destination. By enabling the dead-end u-turn, however, it allows Waze to route to the end of the dead-end as a turnaround, but the instructions and text-to-speech never mention the u-turn. It’s been awhile since I’ve tried this out, but it is really confusing to the user (from an app standpoint… In reality, I would hope that the driver has enough sense to know how to turn around in a cul-de-sac ). A good way to test it though if you still have a number of dead-end u-turns enabled is to set your destination to somewhere close, and then drive in the opposite direction. Waze does its best to direct you down every dead-end and side street along the route to get you to turn around, and if you follow the instructions and drive down a dead-end, you are left without clear guidance at the end of it.