dbraughlr wrote:sketch wrote:Set it to Minor, and that route won't work.
That's the real real problem. It should work as minor. But like a freeway, MH should have a minimum standard.
What "minimum standard" do you propose? Here's one for you: to be a Major Highway, a road must be either a Principal Arterial or a US Highway.
Two types are used for routes over 200 mi: Freeway and Major Highway. So every non-Freeway road necessary for >200 mile routes must be set to Major Highway,
or else routing won't work.
I have yet to find such a road that isn't classified as a Principal Arterial.
The functional classification of a road is based on a balance of the following factors: access vs. mobility, efficiency of travel, collectors, access points, speed limit,
route spacing (i.e., how far or near other routes of the same class are), usage (traffic volume), number of travel lanes, and continuity. It's a flexible test; no one factor is determinative, and some factors will be more important than others depending on context. But above all, arterial routes are those which connect urban areas. This route connects urban areas, so it's a principal arterial, so it's a Major Highway.
"It should work as minor"? Why? Why should it be Minor at all? Because you don't like it? Tough. It's used for 350-mile routes, so it's Major. No reason for Waze to change the way types work just 'cause you don't like the name of the class it belongs in.
When selecting between routes, I like to see how many miles are interstate/freeway, how many MH, and how many mH. I should be able to choose an alternative either that avoids mH or accept a primary route knowing that it includes mH. Eureka Way might be shortest and fastest. But there are people who want to avoid it. I think I once counted that it changes direction 100 times in ~12 miles ... or something like that.
Except Waze doesn't tell you what's Freeway, Major, or Minor in the list of alternative routes. It tells you the names of the roads used. Sure, editors (~120,000 registered) can look at the map and check it out, but the
vast majority of users (~90,000,000 registered – 750 times as many as there are editors) don't know or care that Minor and Major even exist, much less the difference between them or how each looks on the client map.
Eureka Way is shortest and fastest, so it should be the primary route given. Setting it to Minor would mean it's
not given at all. Yes, there are people who want to avoid it. Those people are welcome to choose an alternative route using the alternative routes feature. But to suggest that
it should be minor is to suggest that
it should not be given at all, which is preposterous. Satisfy yourself by denying a route outright to everyone from Eureka who might want to take a long weekend in Reno.
Actually, don't.
As for the Lincoln Highway, it was the first interstate. It didn't become a highway through modern research. It acquired that designation circa 1925. It is truly a grandfather of highways.
Yes, but it has
kept the designation all this time, and
it became a principal arterial through modern research. If you're suggesting to me that the AASHTO/Congress/US DOT keeps routes around for their historical significance alone,
you are sorely mistaken.
