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Road category policy for India

Post by Darryl-BHP
As seen, the base map appears to have most roads categorized only as 'Street' or 'Freeway' except for a very few shown as 'Primary Street' which may be a result of editing. Where several levels of definition are available, this limits the information available to a Wazer new to that part of India.

I propose the following policy, knowing full well that it will take several months to make significant changes and may never be 100% complete.

Freeways: Expressways such as Mumbai-Pune and Vadodara-Ahmedabad (please post here regarding other expressways in your part of India) and also GQ (Golden Quadrilateral) and NSEW (North-South East-West) trunk routes. Possibly include Mumbai's Western and Eastern express highways, Kolkata's Eastern Metropolitan Bypass and some of the Ring Roads in different cities.

Major Highways: All other National Highways, arterial roads within cities and the best of the State Highways.

Minor Highway: Remaining State Highways, other well maintained and well traveled inter-city routes and city bypasses.

Primary Street: Major through routes from one part of a city to another, also well maintained and traveled rural roads.

Street: All other roads except private and service roads.

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Line Road vs two one-way roads
Waze has provided a guideline that only roads separated by a generous median should be shown as two one-way roads. In the base map for India, however, city streets and highways with a minuscule divider are shown as two one-way roads instead of as a single road with a line. This has resulted in one side or the other reverting to a two way road wherever not locked, due to GPS being insufficiently accurate to determine on which side of the road a Wazer happened to drive.

I propose that all city roads less and highways than 3+3 lanes be identified as 'line road' instead of two separate one-way roads. Where a 2+2 lane road has a flyover with parallel roads, it can be split in three parts showing a two-way flyover with line and two one-way roads alongside. This will actually improve the navigational capabilities and help those Wazing the road for the first time.

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Road geometry at junctions
In the base map, a large number of road junctions show short curved roads at the four corners. A few of these are actually free left turns, but the majority are just a widening at the crossing. The indirect result of such mapping is that sometimes Waze instructs to 'Bear Left' instead of 'Turn Left' which can be confusing. I propose that, with due reference to satellite imagery and/or ground reality, these curved roads can be removed to clean up the map and the navigation.

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Thank you for reading these suggestions, and do please post your opinions along with other possible map improvements that may come to mind.
Darryl-BHP
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Post by cshubhra
Darryl-BHP wrote:As seen, the base map appears to have most roads categorized only as 'Street' or 'Freeway' except for a very few shown as 'Primary Street' which may be a result of editing. Where several levels of definition are available, this limits the information available to a Wazer new to that part of India.

I propose the following policy, knowing full well that it will take several months to make significant changes and may never be 100% complete.

Freeways: Expressways such as Mumbai-Pune and Vadodara-Ahmedabad (please post here regarding other expressways in your part of India) and also GQ (Golden Quadrilateral) and NSEW (North-South East-West) trunk routes. Possibly include Mumbai's Western and Eastern express highways, Kolkata's Eastern Metropolitan Bypass and some of the Ring Roads in different cities.
Golden quad is a good option. As a start I would say the following
a. At least four lanes
b. Speed limit of 80 KM/h - And it is possible to do that
c. No traffic lights

As per the defn, expressways, and golden quadrilateral qualify but not Mumbai's Western Express Highway, Kolkata's Eastern Bypass. Ring roads may possibly qualify. Use your discretion
Darryl-BHP wrote: Major Highways: All other National Highways, arterial roads within cities and the best of the State Highways.
a. Speed limit (Or its possible to do) - 60 KMPH
b. Less traffic lights
c. Use your discretion if it passes through a major city. Often it is not possible to achieve a consistent speed of 60 KMPH through a city highway, though you can reach speeds of over 100. Don't consider the F1 types, but nervous drivers like me when thinking of the speed.

Darryl-BHP wrote: Minor Highway: Remaining State Highways, other well maintained and well traveled inter-city routes and city bypasses.
All other highways.
Darryl-BHP wrote: Primary Street: Major through routes from one part of a city to another, also well maintained and traveled rural roads.
All roads regardless of speed, which can be considered as the arterial road, and you want to encourage routing through that, to avoid multiple turns. Discretion of the AM
Darryl-BHP wrote: Street: All other roads except private and service roads.
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All other roads, except the ones you want to discourage routing through

Parking Lot Roads: Roads you want to possibly discourage routing, and real parking lot roads

Ramp: Roads giving access to a freeway/major highway. You would like to use it to merge / leave a highway, but otherwise discourage routing through it.

Walking Trail: Narrow roads which are walkable, bikable but a car would not ordinarily go in
cshubhra
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Post by cshubhra
Good to see more editors coming up in India :D
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Post by Darryl-BHP
Driving on one side of the road or the other is country-specific and is not the reason for road directions getting automatically changed. This happens only because the combined width of the two directions of the road isn't enough for the average phone GPS to differentiate between them. You can see this for yourself by going to the map editing page ('Cartouche') and turning on the 'GPS Points' layer to view the tracks along a city street that has been created as two one-way roads. For most such roads that I have reviewed, almost all tracks in both directions appear along one side/direction and the other 'road' is practically free of GPS tracks.

db
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Post by Darryl-BHP
And don't forget to create appropriate turn restrictions at junctions where there isn't a gap in the road divider!
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Post by dmcconachie
Darryl-BHP wrote:
Driving on one side of the road or the other is country-specific and is not the re...
Agreed. Already started combining two one way roads into one in Pune Area.

Is there a way to combine these roads in one road??
To Separate 2 one way roads we have a Option in Edit panel, is there anything similar for combining into one? or do we have to do it manually?
Delete one and turn the other to two-way. There is no combine option!
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Post by hsanivaram
cshubhra wrote:I personally find that having roads with dividers as two one way roads is better. It automatically restricts U turns, except at allowed places. The problem mentioned above, I have seen as well, did not know that it was because of inaccurate GPS points!!! I will keep the two one way roads locked, to avoid turning them to two-way roads!
I abosultely feel the same.. No matter if the GPS on phones is good or not..someday it will be good and then we will have to rework it all.
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Post by komatineni
great and thanks for the lively discussion. helped me to update some roads in Andhra Pradesh.
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Post by lunarplexus
Well done, Darryl! That's a pretty good system. I think we do all need to be on the same page to make a more comprehensive and consistent map of our country. I'll get to changing the ring-roads to minor highways and connecting roads as primary streets as a start.

This thread is just pure brilliance. :)

Cheers!
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Post by lunarplexus
Since service roads are almost never accessed, should one keep them around or get rid of them?

And also, if I may digress just a bit, I'm having a little trouble figuring out how to authorise U-turns on single two-way roads. All turns seem to be authorised at the junction but when I need to take a u-turn, Waze tells me to take a right and then another right and then right again.

For example, the junction in question is in this permalink: https://world.waze.com/editor/?zoom=8&l ... =171690759
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