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Post by MisterMooCow
razor2k wrote:
AlanOfTheBerg wrote:
HavanaDay wrote:So are we suppose to draw all parking lots as landmarks now? And what did you infer he meant by driveable surfaces? Does that include all parking lot roads or still just the major roads in and out as per usual.
There was discussion about POI vs. landmark where POI is a point, not a shaded area like we have now. I am not clear whether Waze is say we should be mapping all business, etc. as landmarks or whether a different feature for POI will be coming. Someone who was paying more attention than me will need to chime in.

Every drivable surface does mean parking lots, but there was a lot of discussion around that topic and how Waze wants parking lots done.
From what I understood, parking landmarks should only be added around Malls (with their associated perimeter roads). Anything smaller (Strip malls and the like) just map in the PL roads w/o landmark. Am I right? :?
My takeaway on both points (POI/landmark-a-palooza and paving every surface capable of facilitating any form of terrestrial transportation--motorized, pedaled, pedestrian, equine, bovine, cervine, asinine,...) is that we are at status quo unless/until Waze provides tools and features to support this (namely, make parking lot roads, etc. be less prominent in the client and in WME, as well as develop a POI database/management interface that makes the drawing of landmarks moot).
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Post by MisterMooCow
razor2k wrote:
ohiostmusicman wrote:Part of the reason I ask is because when it comes to routing to a specific point, Waze will route you to the road closest to the point. Sometimes, those parking lot roads for a specific fast food place are closer so it tries to route you using them even though you cannot reach the actual location through a fast food restaurant drive-thru...
Waze should not be routing through parking lot or private roads to get you to your destination.
Right, it won't route through (meaning "into and back out from") the parking lot/private roads. However, if the parking lot or private road ends up being closer to the destination's pin than the actual entrance/access to the destination, the driver will be routed into the parking lot to get the driver closer to the apparent location of the adjacent business (or apartment).

In Ohio, we've seen examples where the pin for a destination is quite far away from the actual destination's access/entrance and consequently the driver is routed to a private road that -- while closer to the pin -- is far away from the actual destination. We've used this same property to provide better routing when the pin is closer to a limited-access road than to the road providing access to the destination (in which case we'll put in a parking lot road from the access road and get the PL road to be closer to the destination pin than the limited access road).

This affect on routing (as well as the "clutter" factor) is why I discourage folks from putting in smaller parking lot roads unless they're truly required for providing correct routing to access a destination -- once you start putting in the smaller parking lot roads (especially in dense urban areas), you really need to do it everywhere to minimize the misrouting and (until the parking lot/private roads are obscured in the client and WME) doing it everywhere will make things a mess.
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Post by MisterMooCow
ohiostmusicman wrote: This brings me back to my original question - should we be trying now to put in something for every single small lot? If not, then there will be plenty of times where users get routed incorrectly. What good is a GPS service if it routes users incorrectly?
Waze eventually wants parking lots indicated. However, until the editor and app are changed to make parking lot roads be less prominent, the general guidance is "don't pave small/simple parking lots".

There are times when it's necessary to deviate from the guidance in order to ensure proper routing (e.g., to deal with limited-access roadways), but those are rare.

For new editors, just assume that you shouldn't pave small/simple parking lots; if you think you've encountered a situation that you believe requires a small/simple parking lot to be paved, please ask for advice-- either contact your RC or post in your state's forum to attract the attention of a local experienced person to offer advice.
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Post by Nacron
AlanOfTheBerg wrote: Other Items
  • Ehud said “don’t make map changes to work around bugs”.
Was there any discussion on U turns? Bowties are a way to work around that bug....
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Post by OhioStMusicMan
So, what about things like where a fast food place is (esp. with a drive-thru). I've seen a lot of errors because people go in, around, and out. Should I map every lot that involves a drive-thru?

Part of the reason I ask is because when it comes to routing to a specific point, Waze will route you to the road closest to the point. Sometimes, those parking lot roads for a specific fast food place are closer so it tries to route you using them even though you cannot reach the actual location through a fast food restaurant drive-thru...
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Post by OhioStMusicMan
jhfrontz wrote:
razor2k wrote:
ohiostmusicman wrote:Part of the reason I ask is because when it comes to routing to a specific point, Waze will route you to the road closest to the point. Sometimes, those parking lot roads for a specific fast food place are closer so it tries to route you using them even though you cannot reach the actual location through a fast food restaurant drive-thru...
Waze should not be routing through parking lot or private roads to get you to your destination.
Right, it won't route through (meaning "into and back out from") the parking lot/private roads. However, if the parking lot or private road ends up being closer to the destination's pin than the actual entrance/access to the destination, the driver will be routed into the parking lot to get the driver closer to the apparent location of the adjacent business (or apartment).
This is the issue I have. The most recent encounter I had was here. I was on my way to Clark for gas and someone had put in a parking lot road at the Wendy's just to the NW. Even though the address in Waze via gas lookup was correct, the location pin was closer to the Wendy's parking lot road than Apollo Dr and it wanted me to enter the Wendy's parking lot to finish my trip. I know the area enough to know that wouldn't work (insert hilarious joke about Wendy's food and gas here). I deleted the Wendy's road because of this.

This goes back to my original question of should we be putting in these roads for, say, every fast food place, small parking lot, etc.? I know I've seen tons of error pins because cars go in and out and there's no road there. I've been inclined not put any road in specifically of issues such as this. However, if the goal is to map every drivable path, then this could cause an issue.
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Post by OhioStMusicMan
kentsmith9 wrote:
ohiostmusicman wrote:This is the issue I have. The most recent encounter I had was here. I was on my way to Clark for gas and someone had put in a parking lot road at the Wendy's just to the NW. Even though the address in Waze via gas lookup was correct, the location pin was closer to the Wendy's parking lot road than Apollo Dr and it wanted me to enter the Wendy's parking lot to finish my trip. I know the area enough to know that wouldn't work (insert hilarious joke about Wendy's food and gas here). I deleted the Wendy's road because of this.
I believe the problem you experienced was the current Lat/Long address information for the station from Bing was closer to Wendy's. Once Waze is using the internal address information that problem could be solved without deleting roads. :shock:
Except the gas station info was Waze's...now, of course we (or just I maybe) don't know exactly where it came from, but that is not something that can be fixed with Bing. I've done my share of fixing locations with Bing when the location is wrong. As far as I know, going to Bing to fix it wouldn't fix problems with Waze's gas lookup. The only reason I took out the road in Wendy's is that it was resulting in incorrect routing and would every time. Personally, I would have it route me (and others) to the correct location at the expense of having a road for a drive-thru. The only other fix would be to try and map the gas station in some way.

This brings me back to my original question - should we be trying now to put in something for every single small lot? If not, then there will be plenty of times where users get routed incorrectly. What good is a GPS service if it routes users incorrectly?

As an aside, I wonder, now that we can edit gas station info in the US, if the address info put in will be used to provide routing. If not, what's the point of putting it in there if it won't be used?
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Post by Olestas
Rename US "Dirt/4x4" road type to "Unpaved" for clarity.
Create new US "4x4/Offroad" road type as Waze wants all paths of vehicle traffic, no matter how remote or how its used, to be mapped.
Will you do the same for INTL server?
Will you also change the way waze navigates through these types of roads?
Will you add option to avoid 4x4/Offroad type and/or Unpaved type separately?
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Post by phantomblack
AlanOfTheBerg wrote: Every drivable surface does mean parking lots, but there was a lot of discussion around that topic and how Waze wants parking lots done. On one hand they seemed to say map the lots as roads, then they said just entrance/exit stubs and landmarks otherwise. Pretty unclear IMO.
I agree I think we could use some clarification on this. Until I understand better I guess it is business as usual leave parking to the newer editors or add the bare minimum to keep frequent requests at bay.
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Post by PhantomSoul
I've been mapping small parking lots only when there's a problem pin, and adding only the segments needed to solve the problem pin. Otherwise, smaller parking lots can easily get cluttered with segments crisscrossing all over the place at distances most cell phone location/GPS systems cannot distinguish.

For larger parking lots that clearly show distinct thoroughfares at least 50 m (150 ft) apart, I've been mapping the entrances/exits from nearby roads, the roadway along the perimeter of the building, the drive-able perimeter of the parking lot, and any obvious thoroughfares that connect the two perimeters based on looking at the aerials.

The important thing is to not map every single lane with parking stalls. They are often too close together for Waze to be able to distinguish which row you're actually in, probably confusing Waze as to where you are actually driving.
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