DoctorKb, I think you are missing the point I was making. The point is that Andy claimed that anything passable by a Sedan was to be worthy of the Dirt-4X4 designation. My point is that simply setting any road that is merely unimproved, regardless of how passable it is to dirt and then telling users that the dirt/4X4 road type is just an unimproved but useable road is a bad idea. If the road is highly maintained and passable by any vehicle it should be designated a street (for now) even if the surface is gravel or even dirt. Save the Dirt/4X4 designation (for now) for those that are of questionable quality, at times they may be in great condition having been just recently graded, but if the care is limited and intermittent, at best they can not be considered reliably passable by every vehicle at all times. Further because this category already includes untold miles and miles of true 4x4 trail quality roads that should never be attempted with a sedan; and even many (though I delete those I recognize as such) that shouldn’t be attempted without a dedicated rock crawler, as they imported with the basemap, we cannot in good faith use the Dirt road/4X4 Trail road type and announce to the users of Waze that it is a high quality road that is merely of an unimproved surface.
Now should Waze create a new road type (Unimproved Street would be my recommendation if they go this route), or better yet in my opinion give us the unimproved checkbox option useable on any road type (okay maybe not freeway), then such a road should be widely implemented anywhere you have good quality roads that are simply not paved. To declare an existing road type with extensive networks of very rough roads and trails already on the map as highly passable is asking to get someone in serious trouble. As does happen every now and then out here in the west, both in winter time and in summer. With GPS devices taking drivers through snowed in passes in the winter or onto desert traces in summer. People have died from such false advice, we do not want Waze to be giving such advice if at all possible.
To mark “Any unpaved road as Dirt/4X4” denies users (trying to avoid unpassable roads) many viable routes and indeed even all access to some areas (well not really because once they are on those roads Waze will route them) where the roads are unpaved but are very well maintained and with the exception of after severe rains or during the spring melt are viable routes. And a gravel route is more reliably navigable than a dirt, yet you grouped it in with the dirt roads.
Previously in one of the many threads on the topic someone said that using the avoid dirt roads options may be popular with those who don’t want to get their car dirty. That reasoning is not one I concern my thoughts with, I don’t care if my vehicle gets dirty and I don’t really care if a user’s car gets dirty, I just want a safe route that is quick and as short as possible while remaining safe. (Not that I worry too much as I do in fact drive a 4X4 vehicle capable of handling most the so designated segments.) If a local editor knows that a said road is always passable regardless of the surface material then let him mark it a street for the time being. But even if we follow your thought process and keep unimproved marked as dirt and only paved marked as streets, that is far preferable to what Andy claimed was the new standard.
p.s. sorry for getting so verbose.