Yup I concur


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I think that in most cases physical restrictions are far more important than vehicle types and being able to set the height, width and weight of the vehicle you are driving would cover most circumstances.

I've been down several roads in London where a 6'6" restriction (not always clearly signed until you're face to face with it) is far more important (to my wing mirrors at least) than the 7.5 ton restriction (usually very easy to see in advance) that allows me to drive down the road.

The only UK exception in general are Bus Lanes (Taking into account that the driver is still responsible for making sure that they don't use a restricted route i.e. goods vehicles in Regent's Park)

Timbones wrote:
So, I propose that editors are advised to not bother with vehicle types at all, because they do not add value to the map, and mistakes can easily break routing for users. The one exception we might allow is a two-way road that is restricted to buses in one direction.

What say ye?

Fine by me

Also, to add to Iain's wise words above: there is no need to add vehicle or time restrictions to turns if those segments already have those restrictions. Turns with restrictions are hard to spot in the editor, and so should only ever be used when it is the turn itself that is restricted. For example, where trucks are not allowed to turn left because of limited space, but are otherwise allowed to enter the segment from another direction.

Regarding the use of "truck" restrictions, I'm willing to entertain the idea that we can have a standard set of dimensions for which truck can be used. Or, to look it another way "not a car".

Looking at the government's Guide to Lorry Types and Weights, anything more than 3.5 tonnes is considered to be a "Lorry" or heavy goods vehicle. Anything less 3.5 tones is "light goods", including vans and pickups. There are other legal things around this 3.5 tonne limit (e.g. driving license, so I think this is a good starting point.

I've not yet found a clear differentiator for other dimensions yet though. Perhaps we should leave those undocumented, unless anyone else has some suggestions.

PealRinger wrote:Does the vehicle type of 'Bus' include private hire coaches?

Yes.

PealRinger wrote:What is the 'Public Transport' vehicle type?

Local buses, excluding private hire coaches. Use when signed "local buses only".

Following on from another rant by Iain, let's review this topic on vehicle restrictions:

Firstly, vehicle types are not supported by Waze, and they have no plans to develop it. So, the only type that matters for now is "Private Vehicle". All other arguments for types are, at this point in time, moot.

Secondly, most of the vehicle types listed in the editor are either irrelevant or poorly defined. "Truck" is very broad and could be defined as "anything above 3.5 tonnes" but is unlikely to be a perfect fit much of the time. Bus drivers don't use Waze, and I doubt many coach drivers do either. The only type that might be applicable to our country is "Taxi", and maybe some kind of "Goods Vehicle" (or two). HOV just isn't a thing here, and motorcycles are treated as cars.

Thirdly, use of vehicle restrictions can be confusing to editors, and we frequently see restrictions with the opposite intent. For example, a bus lane that prohibits buses and taxis, and allows all others.

We could translate some of the terms in UK English to be easier to understand, such as "Truck (3.5T)", "Lorry (7T)", "Local Bus", "Coach" and "Not in use". However, this may cause problems for editors who use UK English in other countries, and it won't help those who haven't changed their language from wrong English. We also cannot deviate from the meanings that Waze thing they have.

If/when we do eventually get vehicle types, they might become something entirely different to the options we have now, so there's little point in trying to get them perfect now. What we really need is height/weight/width restrictions, but we can keep dreaming for them.

So, I propose that editors are advised to not bother with vehicle types at all, because they do not add value to the map, and mistakes can easily break routing for users. The one exception we might allow is a two-way road that is restricted to buses in one direction.

What say ye?

Thank you John and Andrew, you both make some excellent points.

Thinking about the alternate suggestion above, ignoring all the "not-a-car" restrictions seem sensible, as it does not affect the main user. As you say, a street should be mapped as a street, with appropriate restriction for buses.

I'm not aware of any [commonly used] restrictions that only apply to motorcycles, so we can probably ignore that one. (Although, it's still an important vehicle type to have in the app for other reasons).
I'd like to further simplify Buses to mean all buses, and ignore Public Transport. Or treat them as identical. Given that we'd never expect a bus driver to use Waze, the only reason for these options to exist is so we have an appropriate tickbox to tick.

That leaves us with only two vehicle types: Private Vehicle and Taxi. None of the others are relevant, IMHO.

Side note: It's important to know and document how the different road types and restrictions work within Waze. For example, Private Roads can only be routed to if the destination is on it, but they look like ordinary streets to users (hopefully that will change in the future). Roads with restrictions are more strict, and you cannot route onto them even if the destination is on it (please correct me if I'm wrong).

What we need to do is come up with specific use cases, and the recommended restrictions to use. Examples:

• Any Dimension Limit - do not add restrictions to the map
• Access Only - Private Road, no restrictions
• Buses Only - untick Buses, and Taxi if allowed
• No HGVs - do not add restrictions to the map
• Loading Only - Private Road, with time restrictions for when loading is not permitted
• HGVs Only - untick Truck (common at services, could be translated)

Does that work? Any others we should add?


We could translate "Truck" to "HGV", and allowed editors to add that restriction for any sign that says "No HGVs" or "Unsuitable for HGVs", regardless of the posted weight limit. Or we could just not use it.

PealRinger wrote:Shall I put together a draft wiki page pulling all this together in one place for further review/comment?

Please do. You can create a page within your own userspace...

Waze have sneaked in a new Navigation setting called "Vehicle Type" that currently includes just Private and Taxi. So, we need to ensure that restrictions for Taxi are at least correct.

There's a good chance that they will add in "Truck" at some point soon, so we need to figure out what this should be. A discussion amongst champs concluded that "Lorries (3.5T)" would be best, as it covers all medium goods vehicles. We figured that HGV drivers probably aren't using Waze...

Does this seem sensible to everyone?