I was wondering what our stance is regarding the FC classification of NY Reference Routes. I’ve been finding some set as mH when the NY FC map/inventory dictates they are only streets or PS.
While they are technically state highways, they are unsigned (except for these four). Most were former state highway alignments or were created to carry large amounts of traffic (e.g. From exits to the road they primarily serve or highways for seasonal/event traffic [Lake Placid Olympics traffic]), so I believe as a general rule they are probably fine as mH minimum (with discretion). However, I can also see them treated the same way BUS, SPUR, and LOOP roads are.
It depends. Lacking a touring state route marker (the white on black Empire shield), they typically would need to correspond with their FC type. Connectors need to match the lowest type of road they connect.
Many parts of upstate NY, and even some parts of NYC metro, are still being worked on to bring it to FC compliance, so in those areas, you may still see incorrect road types - particularly mH for roads that might really be PS or just street.
I’ve noticed those random mH’s strewn about in the countryside. Many are also locked at 4 and 5 which can be quite annoying.
All of the reference routes I encountered in my area happened to be Minor Arterial and above anyway. I’ve just been doing locks along the Northway, as my 90 days driving there up are soon, and I’ve found the editors who FC upgraded that area were setting reference routes higher. I’ll shoot them a message to double check.
NY-104 is nearly 200 miles long and spans a large portion of the state. It’s by all means a major highway. I will say more to this in the other thread you posted, but in short, your personal idea of what a ‘Major Highway’ should look like has zero bearing on what a ‘Major Highway’ means to the Waze routing server.
We all appreciate the discongruity of the label Major Highway and the appearance of the roads. However, the term Major Highway in Waze has a very specific meaning in the US. It means anything that is not an access-controlled freeway, and is either:
a US route (US-123) or
classified by the state DOT as either an “expressway” or a “major arterial”
The reason for all this is that Waze has a need to quickly find routes across large areas, a need which dovetails with the government guidelines for designating some roads “major arterials.”
Want details? See the Road types/USA article i the wiki.
By the way, currently, Waze starts appearing in Google search results for functional classification in position #22.
Thank you for your reply, it answers a number of questions and acknowledges and confirms other thoughts I have regarding the mapping process as Waze is concerned (still don’t think 104 and 370 are major highways thou) but obviously due to how all the “puzzle pieces” fit together at this time it is what it is.
And I have noticed that Waze has starting appearing the Google search results too. Good for Waze.