RodNav wrote:I think we mustn't forget the purpose of the road types. It's not to show a continuous road from eg Cape Town to Joburg. It has to do with waze not wanting to offer a quicker route just because it prefers to use Freeway over say, a Primary road. Remember that over certain route distances (in the forum somewhere and maybe wiki) waze will only use higher types of road if they're available, meaning it won't look for quicker options. This is important when passing thru towns.

Do you have a link to a forum post / wiki page talking about this? I was always under the impression that the primary purpose of road type was for drawing the map correctly, not for making significant routing decisions. This is why I've always been against "downgrading" road types, but perhaps I'm misinformed...

Legally (when it comes to assumed speedlimits, etc) there seem to be two classes of freeway...

Class A-1: Dual carriagwaw

Class A-2: Single carrigewawy

They seem to mainy be indicated by signs. Relevant signs include:

GLS-4, GLS-5, GDS-4, GDS-5 (in this pdf: http://www.arrivealive.co.za/downloads/ ... rt%203.pdf ) (THese seem to be images used on larger signs, such as direction / name signs)

R401, R402 in this PDF: http://www.arrivealive.co.za/downloads/ ... rt%201.pdf

http://www.arrivealive.co.za/downloads/ ... rt%205.pdf has the sign names.

I'm glad you've started this discussion, as I've been puzzling over it myself.

I would think that Freeway should only be used for true Freeways as defined here in SA. That is, access to and from the freeway is by on-ramps and off-ramps only - no intersections as such. Also, being a dual carriageway would seem to be a requirement.

Of course, this would mean that many of the 'N' roads between cities should actually be Major highways, not Freeways as they are at the moment.

I've been using Primary Streets inside of towns for the main route through the town. However, re-reading the wiki, I think Minor Highway is actually more appropriate.

Before changing Freeways to Major Highways and Primary Streets to Minor Highways I'll wait to see what the feeling of other SA wazers is - if they post here!

So, to sum up:

Freeway type only when It's truly a freeway as described above.
All other 'N' roads between towns should be Major Highways, or Minor Highways if there are many stop streets / traffic lights. This description leaves a lot to interpretation, so suggestions welcome!
When a Major Highway passes thru a town it should probably become a Minor Highway if there several intersections.

Hopefully others will chip in with their ideas.

I think we mustn't forget the purpose of the road types. It's not to show a continuous road from eg Cape Town to Joburg. It has to do with waze not wanting to offer a quicker route just because it prefers to use Freeway over say, a Primary road. Remember that over certain route distances (in the forum somewhere and maybe wiki) waze will only use higher types of road if they're available, meaning it won't look for quicker options. This is important when passing thru towns.

Specifically, I feel quite strongly that Freeway should be used only for a true freeway, and Major or Minor Highway for other roads. So for me N roads are Freeway when truly a freeway, otherwise Major Highway. I think the other options could still apply, with discretion for local knowledge. I do feel that Freeway/Highways should be downgraded when in a town, especially the small towns with stop streets and a 60km/h speed limit. Sometimes downgrade to Primary or maybe Minor Highway, depending on the specific town's street layout.

So, after giving a long-winded reason for my thinking, The only thing I really disagree with is using Freeway when it isn't a freeway.

Hi all,

Sorry I haven't responded for a while, I have had a very busy work period. (As a TV freelancer you sometimes work many days in a row!)

mithrandi asked about posts, but as Kuhlkatz said, I would also have to hunt thru the forums to find the info. What I said about the road types and routing is how I understand things from reading many posts, as well as what I seem to experience while driving.

Specifically, driving from Somerset West to Cape Town (about 40-45km) I can stay on freeway type right into the city itself. And I agree with the typing based on the physical road itself. But a while ago there was a major accident which waze was aware of and was showing the heavy traffic, but insisted on routing on the freeway, even though there were many alternate routes that could (should) have been offered. Knowing the area I drove a different route which was definitely a lot quicker. I could see the traffic at a total standstill, yet waze keep trying to route back into the traffic.

Now, in this case I don't propose changing the type, but I use this to illustrate why I'm reasonably sure that road typing affects the routing. For a road going thru a town, leaving it as a Major Highway type when there are many stop streets or traffic lights might not seem a problem, but for those living there, waze might not work so well.

Searching for "routing road types" I found this in a French posting at
https://world.waze.com/forum/viewtopic. ... es#p248120

0-15 km - All road types are allows for routing.
15-20 km - All road types except Streets.
20-30 km - All road types except Streets and Primary streets.
30-200 km - Only Minor, Major, and Freeways.
more than 200 km - only Freeways.

It seems to come from support but will take me bit longer to find. What it shows is that roadtyping most certainly affects the choice of roads used, depending on route length. It certainly would explain my experienced described above. I think the word "only" should actually be "only (when available)" otherwise it wouldn't find a route at all in some cases!

To answer chriseleven's question, my vote is a strong yes. I'm still not sure how to define the difference between Major and Minor highways, but I do think if it's an N road it should be a Major Highway when not a Freeway. Perhaps it could be dropped to a Minor Highway thru towns?. Thoughts on this?

Now I must get ready for another day's work - freelancers have unusual hours!

chriseleven wrote:I am happy to go with the SA road designators. That would make it simple, eg:
N and M roads are Freeways
Rxx are major highways
Rxxx are minor highways
primary streets are exactly that - the street you would use to drive right through a town or suburb

I agree with this 100%. I don't think much can go wrong if editors followed this classification for roads.

Where I do tend to deviate from this is inside towns and cities. Sometimes a N road goes through a small town, and have a bucket of stop streets and maybe the odd robot. For this stretch I tend to classify as Primary Road.

I think there is room for some discretion but overall Chriseleven's method is the best in my opinion.

It's only in the really big metros where you find these tricky classification problems, and there the editors who live there and know best can bias the roads accordingly.