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Post by tgfathergoose
OK, maybe these have been raised before, but I'll raise them again.

1. I live in New Mexico, where some of the streets in some of the towns are actually dirt roads. I'm sure this is also the case in some part of the rural Midwest. The issue is how to describe them. Waze gives us two choices: Dirt roads/4x4 trails, or streets. I actually had a user submit a problem saying that the street was a dirt road, and wanted it changed! So, what's the proper label for this? Leave as a street, because it's named and has houses along it, or dirt road/4x4 trail, because that what it's a dirt road, but definitely not a 4x4 trail? I've also got a road near my town that is paved except for a two or three mile stretch, where it is dirt/gravel. Making this stretch a dirt road/4x4 would probably complicate directions, as Waze has a setting to avoid dirt roads when it probably means more like 4x4 trail. Really, I think there's a big gap between a dirt road and a 4x4 trail. I'd recommend Dirt/gravel road and 4x4 trail be separated.

2. I understand that Waze currently considers parallel but separate roads to be separate and not linked. Therefore, indicating "other lane" doesn't mean anything. So, anytime I would choose "other lane" to describe a location actually puts it on my left shoulder. This might be difficult for Waze to actually fix. What I believe would be a good compromise would be another location indicating "median" to indicate the space between the two parallel lanes. I often get police cars or broken-down cars in the median strip.
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Post by tgfathergoose
Wow, good discussion all. Didn't think I'd hit such a nerve here. I guess it's all in the eyes of the driver, or the area manager, to decide how to categorize such routes. Perhaps what is needed is a Waze definition for each type of road, and have that in the FAQ.

Now that I've stirred up the pot with high quality, graveled and oiled dirt roads versus pothole-riddled, bone-jarring paved streets, how about the difference between a street, primary street, minor and major highway, etc?
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Post by svx-biker
jasonh300 wrote:We have road definitions in the Wiki. But nothing can be set in stone. There's always going to be exceptions. And almost every AM is going to find an exception for any given road.
A good example is the world server where there are road definitions by country. People here had to find ways to translate the US definitions into local street names.

The example (one of) for Germany is here

You may want to do something for your country. Please check however, if this hasn't been agreed yet by other AMs, Editors or Country Manager.
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Post by sketch
2) is actually something that used to work properly but doesn't at the moment. We're waiting on a fix.
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Post by shrike1978
The road I grew up on in Alabama was dirt (go ahead with the jokes, I can take them), but it was graveled every few years, limed annually and packed and graded regularly, and plenty wide enough for two cars to pass. It was packed quite hard and no more difficult to navigate than many of the paved county roads in the area. It was a very far cry from a 4x4 trail, and I'd be very hesitant to put it anywhere close to the same category, but it was still a dirt road all the same.

Those are the kinds of dirt roads I think of when I hear the phrase dirt road...nothing at all close to a 4x4 trail. There are still a lot of those in more rural areas of the south. In my opinion, those road types should be split to account for the difference.
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Post by Scruffy151
AlanOfTheBerg wrote:But I would rather never to be routed onto a dirt/gravel road, even if it is a valid maintained street. I see Dirt Road/4x4 trail as an "or" and in my opinion, I would set these as dirt roads because that's what it is. As was mentioned, if marked as "dirt road/4x4 trail" it will still route you to an address on the dirt road and it will avoid that road if it can if I have it set to avoid. I see no reason not to type it as such.
The problem is there is a big difference between dirt roads and 4x4 trails. The dirt roads around here are as easily navicable in any weather conditions as the paved roads. Whereas a 4x4 trail you need at least 1' of clearance all 4 wheels turning and you still wouldn't want to try them during or after a good rain.

I would like to mark dirt roads as such for people that don't want to use them however without some way to diferenciate roads from trails I am very hesitant to do so.
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