Now that we are getting into the business of restricting turns/segments for moderate/long-term construction activity, we might take it one step further and highlight designated detour routes on the map. It would be nice to coordinate waze’s routing to the on-road detour signs. We could even have each client coloring scheme highlight detours in construction orange, for easy visual following.
One example may be this project in south baltimore where in order to take a left, you have to take a right, three lefts, and another right. Detour PermaLink
I’m not really sure why that would be needed. If you close the road by disconnecting it (for closures of more than a couple of days), then Waze will route you using the best route it can find. The official detour may not be the fastest route (or shortest depending on your settings). If it’s the fastest or shortest, then it should already be used. So I don’t think official detours are necessary. If the faster or shorter route isn’t what Waze chooses, then there’s a reason. Possibly a map problem such as a bad turn restriction. Possibly the detour is in the middle of a long route, so Waze is avoiding a faster/shorter route on Streets because it wants to keep you on highways in the middle of your trip. Possibly the speed data shows that one route is better than the other even if when you drive down the road, the data is no longer accurate due to constantly changing traffic conditions. Possibly there just isn’t any current speed data on some of the streets, causing Waze to use default data or historical data that may be inaccurate. In short, there may be a range of reasons why you aren’t getting the route you want in Waze, but that doesn’t mean the official detour route should get any higher ranking in route calculations. In many cases, an official detour can be slower than alternate routes simply because there may be too many people on the official detour that may be on streets not really meant to handle that amount of traffic.
I do understand where you’re coming from, but Waze is really already designed to route you around closed roads (assuming they are closed/disconnected in Waze) using the best route based on the map and available data. So as long as you’re using navigation, there really shouldn’t be any confusion. You also have the issue of risk in that kind of setup. If you’re in a construction zone or detour area, you should be paying greater attention to the road as there are likely to be unexpected stops or slowdowns or other dangers more often than on a normal drive. If you have to look at your screen to determine whether or not to follow a detour or use Waze’s route, that is a bit too much distraction in my opinion. Waze’s route should be the best route. Sure, it can be wrong, but in most cases, it will be correct. And if Waze thinks the route it gives is better than the detour, then even if it asked you which route to take and gave you times, those times should show that Waze’s route is faster if your settings are for the fastest route. Waze shouldn’t be choosing a slower route if it has the data to show that it’s a slower route.
Anyhow, that’s just what I think. Others may think it will have more benefit.
