I’m new to this forum so apologies in advance if this has been covered. I researched “truck restrictions” and found posts about WAZE not having a mechanism to ID segments with truck restrictions as its a commuter app. I reached out to Google for an adjustment to reroutes, they pointed me to WAZE. Hence, thought I would post here.
Many of you will know Guardsman Pass road between Salt Lake and Park City/Heber Valley Utah. Unfortunately, when US 40 or i80 closes, this road is often given as a reroute option to motorists. It should not be and I find it a bit outrageous that there is not a solution for this. While I am still learning WAZE and how it determines route options, it would seem that some entry in WAZE or a data hook from UDOT would allow for classification of that road as not suitable for trucks. If Google is using WAZE for more of its “real time” status of roads to inform routing options, I’m of the opinion a municipality should be able to influence what roads are recommended. Especially in a case such as this when lives are at stake.
Recently a dump truck went off road coming down from Guardsman pass on the Park City side. luckily the driver survived and he drove the vehicle into a bank to avoid rear ending other vehicles in a que. He informed the police that he was “rerouted” by google to go over Guardsman and down into Park City when coming from Draper, as i80 was closed due to a vehicle fire. We all know we can’t completely control human behavior and there were plenty of indicators this was not the way he should be going long before the incident occurred. But I digress.
Last year, similar scenario from Park City side where a semi attempted to go UP SR-224 which was the suggested reroute by Google when SB US-40 closed to Heber. He got stuck, went off road, and it required significant resources to get him out, and a full road closure for hours. We deploy VMS messages to inform drivers of “no semi’s over guardsman” but that has been ignored as Google lists it so it “must be a viable option.”
Back to google pointing me to WAZE…if Google will not do it directly on their map then what are the options for municipalities? We’ve had multiple incidents from trucks following rerouting suggestions they should not have due to lack of details about the route.
If the tech is smart enough to label TT’s on various options in the result set, and we can see elevations, clearly it could display a label about restrictions or alerts containing details about a road segment, like grade or “switchbacks”, something.
I’m curious about suggestions on how this might be handled. Guidance toward a contact at Google if this is not the place for this topic? other? this is a serious issue and I believe someone is going to die following recommendations from these tools. I know we can’t solve it completely if someone just ignores what is in front of them, but it would seem that more information could be provided for roads that are clearly “off the beaten path”. post the option but label it and travel time alone isn’t enough.
fwilljr