Get a sneak peek at whats next for Permanent Hazards on our April 7th Office Hours!

Post Reply

Halifax, NS. Major vs Minor Highways

Post by
I don't think this is the forum to post this but the Nova Scotia forum seems to have no activity on it and I would like for this to be seen and at the same time this requires at least a level 5 to make the majority of the changes that I note.

I have noticed that several roads in Halifax and the surrounding area may be categorized wrongly. Most of the roads that are categorized as Major Highways should be categorized as Minor Highways or Primary Streets and Some sections of Freeway can arguably be categorized as a Major Highway.

As per the following Wiki, I believe that the majority of the highways can be taken down a level. For instance North St should be a minor highway or even a primary street and Barrington St should be a minor highway based on number of lanes and amount of intersections and lights (according to the wiki again).

On the other side I have found some streets that can be categorized higher. For instance Joseph Howe Dr is a Primary Street but I think it should be a Minor Highway.

These are only a few examples and I am looking for a correct coarse of action to take on this issue.

POSTER_ID:17024164

1

Send a message

Post by ColinsGoat
Just to bring this thread back to life, I think MrHovi is correct about these roadways. Another example is Windmill Road near the Macdonald bridge. There is no way that this is a "major highway" as described. It should probably have the same designation as the nearby Wyse road: primary street, and MAYBE minor highway when it becomes Alderney Drive. Likewise, I would think of Barrington Street not being a major highway, but probably a minor one. At least by how I interpret the following link:

https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/Canada#Withi ... itan_Areas
ColinsGoat
Area Manager
Area Manager
Posts: 220
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 3 times
Send a message
[img]https:///c7J4Vm[/img]
Area Manager: Atlantic provinces
Area Manager: a rectangular chunk of Saskatchewan bounded approximately by Melfort and Tobin Lake

Post by ColinsGoat
Thanks Restless. Let me know if I can be of any assistance.
ColinsGoat
Area Manager
Area Manager
Posts: 220
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 3 times
Send a message
[img]https:///c7J4Vm[/img]
Area Manager: Atlantic provinces
Area Manager: a rectangular chunk of Saskatchewan bounded approximately by Melfort and Tobin Lake

Post by ColinsGoat
Oh and one more thing: Hwy 102 has some labelling issues:

viewtopic.php?f=358&t=157805&sid=b2a7a3 ... bb5a2839f5
ColinsGoat
Area Manager
Area Manager
Posts: 220
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 3 times
Send a message
[img]https:///c7J4Vm[/img]
Area Manager: Atlantic provinces
Area Manager: a rectangular chunk of Saskatchewan bounded approximately by Melfort and Tobin Lake

Post by ColinsGoat
I don't think that's consistent with the definition. North Street is one lane in each direction, and goes through residential neighbourhoods at 50 km/h, with plenty of intersections. As an arterial, perhaps it qualifies as a minor highway.
ColinsGoat
Area Manager
Area Manager
Posts: 220
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 3 times
Send a message
[img]https:///c7J4Vm[/img]
Area Manager: Atlantic provinces
Area Manager: a rectangular chunk of Saskatchewan bounded approximately by Melfort and Tobin Lake

Post by ColinsGoat
Well that's interesting, and puts the current situation into a different light.

Notwithstanding the above, it still seems wrong to designate North Street (not to mention Windmill Road on the other side of the harbour) as major highway, as it does generally not to be able to categorize a street according to its function within the municipality. Perhaps in reality this amounts to little more than concern over semantics, but I would have thought that the routing algorithm would benefit from categorization that better reflects reality.

But then again, I'm still only a well-intentioned noob :)
ColinsGoat
Area Manager
Area Manager
Posts: 220
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 3 times
Send a message
[img]https:///c7J4Vm[/img]
Area Manager: Atlantic provinces
Area Manager: a rectangular chunk of Saskatchewan bounded approximately by Melfort and Tobin Lake

Post by ColinsGoat
restless_in_nb wrote: But, if these are not seen by waze as the main collectors...what should be in their place?
I guess my thought is that roads like North Street should be given elevated routing priority, but not on par with something like the Bedford Highway. That is, the former would be a minor highway, and the latter a major highway. In practice (and maybe in my opinion...) North St., Joseph Howe Dr., and Connaught Ave. are of comparable importance in traffic flow in Halifax. Yet, the first is major highway, the second is minor highway, and the third is both a minor highway and a primary street. The categorization doesn't seem to correlate strongly with reality.
restless_in_nb wrote: This is not official waze wiki stuff, but it helps me make decisions on how to categorize roads. I love these conversations though, especially when folks like DoctorKB chime in because they have forgotten 100 times more about waze that I know...
I find this all very informative, and strangely fascinating! And I do know that my opinions have little basis in Waze experience. But by provoking these discussions, if nothing else, I selfishly get to learn a lot. :D
ColinsGoat
Area Manager
Area Manager
Posts: 220
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 3 times
Send a message
[img]https:///c7J4Vm[/img]
Area Manager: Atlantic provinces
Area Manager: a rectangular chunk of Saskatchewan bounded approximately by Melfort and Tobin Lake

Post by ColinsGoat
doctorkb wrote:
Well, of course, you're welcome to either:
1) Lobby the provincial government to change the official route to one that makes more sense
or
2) Lobby your municipality to improve the road to the point at which it warrants being marked as the highway that it is numbered as...

:)
Ugh, neither sounds appealing... :)

So out of curiosity, how strongly obligated are we to follow the "official" road designations and categories? If Waze is user-driven, shouldn't we be flexible enough to depart from descriptors that could be out-of-date and/or bureaucratically inaccurate?
ColinsGoat
Area Manager
Area Manager
Posts: 220
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 3 times
Send a message
[img]https:///c7J4Vm[/img]
Area Manager: Atlantic provinces
Area Manager: a rectangular chunk of Saskatchewan bounded approximately by Melfort and Tobin Lake

Post by ColinsGoat
I'm not sure the Jasper example is a good one, since the highway doesn't pass through an urban area. And I'm not familiar with the area. But I did do some looking around at other places I'm familiar with (Ottawa and Los Angeles) and saw that there are many roads labelled as "major highway" in a manner similar to those in question in Halifax. So I suppose North Street et al are indeed reasonably consistent with the overall implementation, notwithstanding the semantics of "major highway".

Thanks for the discussion, guys! It has been informative.

C
ColinsGoat
Area Manager
Area Manager
Posts: 220
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 3 times
Send a message
[img]https:///c7J4Vm[/img]
Area Manager: Atlantic provinces
Area Manager: a rectangular chunk of Saskatchewan bounded approximately by Melfort and Tobin Lake

Post by doctorkb
The appropriate place for this is the Nova Scotia forum. I'll move it there.

Despite it looking a little quiet, it is monitored.

As for your question -- your interpretation of that wiki article is actually the opposite of intended. "Major Arterial" means that even non-highway streets could be upgraded to Major Highway, etc.

In addition, the continuation of any highway needs to stay at the same level it comes into the city on (i.e. the numbered route remains major/minor regardless of traffic restrictions like street lights, etc.)
doctorkb
Posts: 4385
Answers: 4
Has thanked: 433 times
Been thanked: 1464 times
Send a message

Post by doctorkb
For better perspective, look at Edmonton and the number of major/minor highways.

They're not all numbered routes, but form the classification from the municipal government.

I didn't look at your example, because I'm not familiar with the area. I haven't had time to really dig into this yet.

Here's what I found in a quick Google search for Halifax Road Classification:
https://www.halifax.ca/regionalplanning ... cation.pdf

Note: all black lines should be Major or Minor Highway or Freeway. Green and Red are Primary Streets.
doctorkb
Posts: 4385
Answers: 4
Has thanked: 433 times
Been thanked: 1464 times
Send a message