I have recently seen two URs where waze ignored a simple left turn and routed to the next intersection to make a U turn followed by a right turn. In both cases, the simple turn was at a stop light controlled intersection with a dedicated left turn lane. The simple turns are already marked as permitted in both cases. I have linked the two URs below for reference.
Can someone explain what is going on? Is this fixable by an editor? Thank you in advance for the education.
Here is a third example of Waze bypassing the simple left turn and suggesting a U turn followed by a right turn.
I just found the Unusual Routing Log form and submitted all three cases. I am still curious if anyone has any ideas what’s going on.
Signal Avoidance Bug.
Essentially, the waze is calculating that its faster to take the U-turn than the left.
Waze has (after many complaints) implemented the so-called small detour prevention mechanism that is intended to penalize routes that return to the same intersection. This intended to avoid right/U in lieu of left turns (and right/U/right rather than straight) issues where there is only a small savings in time.
Unfortunately, waze is not looking at the examples submitted on the Unusual Routing Log form collectively as a problem. Currently they are looking at examples individually and concluding that each is acceptable.
The junction box can have an effect on these, but currently the recommendation is not to flood the map with junction boxes to address this issue as 1) it doesn’t always work (the junction box in this case helps gather more accurate data regarding the turns, but if it really faster to make the U, then the junction box may not do much) and 2) the junction box does put lots of load on the routing server.