Lower Mainland mH and MH undividing project
Preamble
The Lower Mainland of BC has far fewer controlled access highways than comparable areas in the rest of the country. As such, a large number of our major arteries are divided roads of the mH or MH type (as well as some of primary street types as well), across Vancouver, Richmond, Surrey, New West, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, etc. In many instances, the base map import created divided road segments for these. Or, undivided roads were divided by editors early in Waze's existence.
The wiki contains best practice guidelines for when a road should be divided (i.e. split into two one-way segments) and when it should by undivided (i.e. one two-way segment):
https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/Best_map_edi ... _not_to.29
The criteria are fairly clear, and it is likewise clear that a large number of roads in the Lower Mainland do not follow the guidelines, usually by being divided when they should not be. This frequently adds complexity to routing, can be very ugly and unrealistic in the client app (e.g. bow-tie intersections), and does not promote consistency of mapping or simplicity.
Perhaps more importantly, there are a numerous examples of roads that go from divided to undivided and vice versa various times across their lengths without any adequate reasons. While arguments can usually be made to support either side of an argument for divided vs un-divided, there aren't very many reasons to support arbitrary sections of roads going from divided vs un-divided and vice-versa.
The inappropriateness of at least some of these divided roads is I think fairly conclusive - the question is whether it is worth the effort to start fixing them.
Request for comments
I'd like to gauge the level of interest by the local editing community in fixing some of these roads. A simple example that has been discussed recently is here:
https://www.waze.com/editor/?env=usa&lo ... 901&zoom=6
In this example neither Gaglardi Way nor Broadway meet the criteria necessary for dividing according to the wiki, and the fact that both are divided adds needless complexity to the intersection between them. Do we have the appetite to un-divide these roads? Or is this a case of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'? The wiki also advises that, once a road is divided, even if the divide is not justified, sometimes you can introduce more problems than you solve by un-dividing. For starters, there may be some loss of traffic data involved.
If there is indeed appetite, I'd propose we could use this thread to document the various candidates, discuss the appropriateness of taking any action, and assign an editor to do the required edits, if any. I'm sure one of our Canadian champs would be happy to benevolently watch over the process and mentor as needed, as well as offering their opinions as well as to whether this is something worthwhile doing or not.
Kayos_On_The_Road has probably done more undividing in the Lower Mainland than any other local editor (by a quick search of the unlock forum, at least) and I think his opinion would carry some weight in this regard.
A couple of recent Canada unlock forum threads where undividing various roads has been discussed and/or performed (there are many others):
viewtopic.php?f=358&t=152092
viewtopic.php?f=358&t=152574
viewtopic.php?f=358&t=142175
Cheers
codgerd (Dave)
EDIT: terminology changed from 'split' and 'unsplit' to 'divided' and 'un-divided' as per Waze glossary
The Lower Mainland of BC has far fewer controlled access highways than comparable areas in the rest of the country. As such, a large number of our major arteries are divided roads of the mH or MH type (as well as some of primary street types as well), across Vancouver, Richmond, Surrey, New West, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, etc. In many instances, the base map import created divided road segments for these. Or, undivided roads were divided by editors early in Waze's existence.
The wiki contains best practice guidelines for when a road should be divided (i.e. split into two one-way segments) and when it should by undivided (i.e. one two-way segment):
https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/Best_map_edi ... _not_to.29
The criteria are fairly clear, and it is likewise clear that a large number of roads in the Lower Mainland do not follow the guidelines, usually by being divided when they should not be. This frequently adds complexity to routing, can be very ugly and unrealistic in the client app (e.g. bow-tie intersections), and does not promote consistency of mapping or simplicity.
Perhaps more importantly, there are a numerous examples of roads that go from divided to undivided and vice versa various times across their lengths without any adequate reasons. While arguments can usually be made to support either side of an argument for divided vs un-divided, there aren't very many reasons to support arbitrary sections of roads going from divided vs un-divided and vice-versa.
The inappropriateness of at least some of these divided roads is I think fairly conclusive - the question is whether it is worth the effort to start fixing them.
Request for comments
I'd like to gauge the level of interest by the local editing community in fixing some of these roads. A simple example that has been discussed recently is here:
https://www.waze.com/editor/?env=usa&lo ... 901&zoom=6
In this example neither Gaglardi Way nor Broadway meet the criteria necessary for dividing according to the wiki, and the fact that both are divided adds needless complexity to the intersection between them. Do we have the appetite to un-divide these roads? Or is this a case of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'? The wiki also advises that, once a road is divided, even if the divide is not justified, sometimes you can introduce more problems than you solve by un-dividing. For starters, there may be some loss of traffic data involved.
If there is indeed appetite, I'd propose we could use this thread to document the various candidates, discuss the appropriateness of taking any action, and assign an editor to do the required edits, if any. I'm sure one of our Canadian champs would be happy to benevolently watch over the process and mentor as needed, as well as offering their opinions as well as to whether this is something worthwhile doing or not.
Kayos_On_The_Road has probably done more undividing in the Lower Mainland than any other local editor (by a quick search of the unlock forum, at least) and I think his opinion would carry some weight in this regard.
A couple of recent Canada unlock forum threads where undividing various roads has been discussed and/or performed (there are many others):
viewtopic.php?f=358&t=152092
viewtopic.php?f=358&t=152574
viewtopic.php?f=358&t=142175
Cheers
codgerd (Dave)
EDIT: terminology changed from 'split' and 'unsplit' to 'divided' and 'un-divided' as per Waze glossary
undivide candidate? undivision candidate? reunificiation candidate? 
)
Re: Lower Mainland mH and MH undividing project