UR chatter moved to the Editor Forum so as not to annoy the Reporter…
Note that there were two reports close together relating to un-mapped segments. The majority of this post relates to this segment I have added to the map, although this UR was in relation to another segment:
I’m going to play devil’s advocate here and ask why would you not add the segment that is designed and built to allow road users to make a u-turn if it’s not our place to “restrict perfectly legal turns”?
I would argue that, in terms of routing, it would be far better for Waze to provide a route that included a path along a physical lane than to route a U-turn along a right turn connection on a divided road. Consider the A6 as an undivided two way road here, no U-turns would be allowed because the editor wouldn’t have mapped the connecting segment between the A6 segments on the turn into Charlton Pl. Although there’s no U-turn prohibited sign, to perform a U-turn on the A6 here (a busy four lane road) may land you with a fine and three penalty points for dangerous driving. I know Waze isn’t there to tell people how to drive but people are sometimes easily distracted and do go along with what they are instructed to do, without question. If you can prevent a dangerous turn by not instructing the user to take that turn in the first place, why would you not?
I would also argue that it is far better to restrict turns on segments like this to prevent Waze from routing users incorrectly. For instance, say I wanted to got from Kale St to Ardwick Gn N, without the turns restricted, Waze would instruct me to make a U-turn at the Charlton Pl connection between the divided segments of the A6. Would it not be better for users to be routed along the purpose built turn that I mapped?
So, as far as I can see, I think that the connections from Hamsell Rd and Coral St should also have their turns restricted. I’d like to hear what others think, as these connections between divided roads are seen all over the place and I’d like to know how they should be mapped.
Actually, Waze wouldn’t do this even if there was no turn restriction as there is a mechanism in Waze to prevent U-turns at gaps in the central reservation like this. It works on any right-right turn where the 2 roads are parallel and the dividing segment is less than 10m (although there is some doubt as to whether this is 15m but test seems to suggest it’s set to 10m in the UK).
If you have a crossroads type junction with a dual-carriageway with right turns allowed then you can not add any turn restrictions (or you’d prevent a right turn) so Waze has this additonal rule to stop the (usually illegal) U-turn.
So, back to your dedicated U-turn segment.
Yes, I agree this should be mapped and should be used by Waze especially if it signposted as the correct route to access the other carriageway. The challenge is usually how to map it and avoid the prevention algorithm above stopping any routing! … but there are some notes in the links of how to go about it.
When I tested the turns prior to editing I’m sure the dividing segment onto Charlton Pl was routing u-turns, so I restricted them (whilst keeping the access onto Charlton Pl). That said, it was late in the day. I’ll set that segment back to how it was and test it when the map updates. Do we have a script or a way of determining a segment length without using the scale at the bottom of WME?
Thanks for the links. Now that I’ve looked at them I do remember seeing them before. I learn by ‘doing’ and that information clearly wasn’t retained!
