Massachusetts has this curious (and apparently unique) entity called a “Private Way”. Although not maintained by a city or town (and the municipality assumes no liability), it’s a road that is legally drivable by the public (although the abutters often think otherwise).
We’ve had repeated discussions over whether the Private Road type is correct for these (I say it’s not). Would it be appropriate to create an exception for MA to the general standards for Private Roads? Basically, that a “private way” sign is not sufficient to use the Private Road type. (Roads that are clearly gated / on private property would not fall under this exception.)
If it is legally drivable, then it shouldnt be penalized as a private road, since it falls in the philosophy of enhancing the driving experience by showing new routes. And we create rules based off legal driving and not peoples preferences and experiences. Many of the private ways that i have encountered are often dead end streets.
Our desire to improve mobility and options should absolutely be based upon legal driving, but not ignore the law. If a road’s legal status is Private then it is technically incorrect to classify it as Public. Further, if my tax dollar is not responsible for the maintenance or liability along a certain road, I can’t in clear conscience break the standard because I don’t like how it will affect my preference or experience.
Breaking standards and mis-classification are exactly the types of actions that cause backlash against Waze. IMO, it is very important that we avoid doing so.
Thank you for your response and I think you bring up a good point about private maintenance of the road.
While part of the issue resolved around legal status of the road, which mudge42 did a good job of showing some resources on, I think you bring up a valid philosophical point in terms of how we handle things like parking lot roads.
I think a good step should be to see if there is any examples of roads that are both private ways and connecting roads to review the implications of. I am currently only familiar with roads that are private and dead ends so in those examples the classification doesn’t matter for routing.
Do you have any examples you can think of?
Also welcome to the forums, are you an editor in Massachusetts we are always looking for passionate editors to help support the maintenance of the map and discuss important topics like this.
Well, “mis-classification” and “breaking-standards” is redundant I suppose. But, as an example: Kendall Rd. in Lexington, MA is a local street both legally and by the Waze definitions, but is classified on the Waze map as primary.
We all know that mis-classifications like this are not rare, since they ensure that our favorite cut-throughs are prioritized for us. People who live along those cut-throughs, though, are (to put it politely) angry. I had used Kendall enough to know that it only saves about a minute or so, and I have stopped using it. I would guess that before long Kendall will be blocked entirely, anyway. Make people angry enough and we will end-up with cut-throughs disappearing into severed streets and a maze of Cambridge, MA-style one-ways.
@john… , thanks for the welcome. I do hope to help with the mapping, but need to figure out what time commitment I can make. On the subject of private roads, I am not aware of any private connectors aside from at shopping malls. I have used New St in Cambridge and cut-through the Fresh Pond Mall parking lot to get to the Alewife Parkway. This is a widely-known route and not a real time-saver any more. I am not aware of any connecting private residential roads – though they must exist.
The classification of Kendall as a Primary Road is defined by government agencies and in the Federal Classification it is Primary between Marrett and Worthen.
Well, I would have sworn that I clicked on the section between Waltham and Marrett, since that is the best example of a neighborhood cut-through I have used and felt guilty about. Seems like I was wrong, and if I have been too quick to believe rumors of Wazers’ improprieties then that is my mistake.
I don’t think it is incorrect, though, to say that Waze is increasingly gaining a reputation as a service that encourages driving that has a negative impact on neighborhoods and communities, and that Waze users are insensitive (put politely). In the case of the private road issue, classifying them as public will only make people more angry. And that should be avoided – my original point.
Cannot argue your point about Waze’s public image. However, we’re volunteers here, users like you, and we don’t influence public opinion. That’s for the Huffington Post. We just fix the map and make it accurate. We’re Santa’s elves. Speak to the fat man about policy - although I don’t know who the fat man is…
Based on your quote it’s not maintained by the town (normally means private), BUT because they have this in there “…with a public right of passage,…” It should not be marked as private.
The other question is, would drivers get fined if they travel over these roads?
Apparently Massachusetts is an anomaly of a state in its treatment of private ways.
As noted previously the statutory private way is considered a way which was laid out by municipal planning with the construction and maintenance expenses and jurisdiction largely borne by those who petitioned for its creation. The reason that these even exist was for developers to lay down roads at a relatively minimal cost and inconvenience given that these do not need to meet typical municipal standards and approvals.
All legal arguments that I’ve seen on this matter have indicated that the public has a right of passage over the way; the definition of private vs public indicates responsibility for maintenance and improvements, as well as legal responsibility. It also allows legal enforcement per rules of the public ways.
There have been several news articles on the topic as well as many legal advice opinions which are easily found via web search, all with this interpretation, but these articles give a bit more legal background and definitions. The latter gives a nice history of private ways in MA (pages 12-14).
In the end the question is - do we give equal weight of routing when the cost of maintenance is being borne by residents? If not, is there even a manner to place a lower weight on routing over such road segments (I know the various options, this is largely a rhetorical question)?
As I said the legal definition in MA is a bit odd, this is not simply an issue of roads on private property which can just be chained off at will and would normally then be marked as “private” in the waze system.
I’m in agreement but from time to time worthy of refreshin our thought process and ensure nothing has changed (especially as many of our links are to older articles). I did some more deep digging on some know private ways and also discovered the homeowners do not appear to own the plot of land that is the road which further supports our current interpretation.
I am not positive that it is always the case that property owners don’t own the private way; at least in most circumstances I think the Massachusetts oddity at least prevents strangers to buy the private road and turn it into an investment:
Another interesting article discussing both the ownership issues of private ways as well as a major impediment with attempts to make them public ways - unless all property owners along a private way agree to the change, a municipality may be sued for damages if a private way is taken over to make public via eminent domain.
While this may not be the case everywhere, I had owned a house with a shared, unrecognized driveway with a street name. The deed stated that I owned the land but had to yield a right of way for the driveway. So, in that case, part the “street” was owned by me along my property border but we shared responsibility for clearing and maintaining and I had to yield a right of way to other owners who used it. No mention of the state, town or the public was made on the deed.
In your case Sanz, where a property easement exists, I would feel comfortable making that a private road if it wasn’t a dead end. And it is easy to verify the deed and the existence of an easement http://www.masslandrecords.com/
And found this story recently which of course only tackled half of the issue.
