Having read through the available posts on the use of the unpaved segment type, I’m still not sure about what (if anything) our current policy is, so I’d appreciate some guidance here…
A L3 editor (perhaps - see below) has recently gone on a rather extensive editing spree in and around the Marlow area of Buckinghamshire (permalink to an example of their work), apparently with the goal of changing every single-track section of road in the area to the unpaved segment type.
Given the username of this particular editor, I suspect they may have an aversion to being directed along such narrow roads, however as this isn’t sufficient justification for potentially ballsing up routing for everyone else, I’m wondering if this is a case of taking things a bit too far?
Regarding this editor’s status - WME shows them as being a L3 editor, however their profile page shows them as a L1 with zero editing history :? Given that they clearly have edited at some length in the last couple of weeks, I’m going to assume their profile page is completely wrong and they are indeed a L3…
Thanks,
Chris
I’m looking forward to the guidance too! In the absence of much I’ve occasionally used unpaved for non-private mud roads (not that there seem to be many of them about where I live).
What would be much more useful I feel is a bunch of general categories that could be titled and filtered upon on a country-by-country basis. So in the UK with our love of tiny country lanes an admin could define single-track lane (or similar) and the app could allow the user to avoid them.
Also having a drivable-unpaved and a more general unpaved seems to be a tragic waste of fields.
Regards,
Chris
Once upon a time, we had, for the most minor drivable roads, a choice of three categories:
- street
- private road
- dirt road/4x4 trail
Which gave a dilemma if the road was both private and unpaved/dirt.
I think it was to solve this dilemma that Waze HQ introduced a separate attribute “unpaved”. Now you can have an unpaved (public) street or an unpaved private road.
My understanding is that Waze intend getting rid of the dirt road/4x4 trail category, converting all such roads on the map to be both “street” and “unpaved”. Why this should be delayed rather than having happened with the introduction of the unpaved category is a mystery to me.
So my advice is not to use the “dirt road/4x4 trail” category any more. Without considering the surface, use “street” for public roads and “private road” for roads that we don’t want as through routes (this includes roads signed as "no entry except for access as well as genuinely private roads). Then if it’s unsurfaced or permanently unbearably potholed, check the “unpaved” box.
What we still lack, and I don’t see it as being even on the horizon, is an attribute for single-track roads or any way of recording a width limit. While this is unsatisfactory, the solution is not to mis-map a public surfaced road as unpaved. Since these narrow roads are both slow and unpredictable, Waze will have an inbuilt preference for avoiding them anyway. But when they are clearly likely to be fastest, Waze should route along them.
My advice for people who really object to being routed along narrow roads is that for the moment (and the foreseeable future), Waze is the wrong SatNav for you. 
Please don’t mess up the Waze map for everyone else!
Ian
Could it be a “recycled account name”? That someone, somewhere in the world, had this account name, got to level 3 and then stopped using it. I’ve seen a few “inactive user” edits, so maybe Ferraridriver went inactive, and this guy picked up the same name, and got the (3) even though his profile says 1… I’m confusing myself here!
Seeing Waze recently made a “professional drivers” forum, it hints at them wanting to broaden their market. In which case they’ll definitely need a width limit feature! We can hope, right?
With a bit of help (accidentally) from woodvale, it appears that the profile page issue is due to something screwy going on with the profile server - possibly related to the latest holdup in updating the dashboard.
For me, WME lists the edits as having been performed by ferraridriver, but asking the server for their profile using the direct profile links provided by WME instead loads a blank L1 profile for FerrariDriver. Woodvale then confused me somewhat by pointing out that when he looked at my permalink, the segments were listed for him as having been edited by tfldriver, however when I then asked the server for their profile via a spot of manual URL adjustment it loads the correct L3 profile for ferraridriver.
So it looks like tfldriver has recently changed their name but this has yet to trickle through to all parts of the Waze ecosystem…
My general rule of thumb has always been, if it’s either tarmac or concrete, then it falls into one of the ‘paved’ categories of road. Having SV’d along some of the streets, the majority have, in my opinion, been incorrectly re-categorised.
I believe I did suggest an option for “single track roads with/without passing places” at the conference in July, with the associated option in the app to avoid if it isn’t your cup of tea.
Dave