Overriding Functional Classification
DIRT ROADS
I just wanted to remind everyone to be careful when upgrading road types with the NFC maps, particularly in rural areas. A number of streets that MDOT classifies as major or minor collectors are dirt roads. In order to preserve the avoid/avoid long dirt road option in the client, the road type should remain "Dirt Road / 4x4 Trail" (unless the much-requested checkbox for dirt roads distinct from road type is now a new feature in the beta editor, and I'm not aware of it...).
When editing today, I noticed a few stretches that were recently changed to Primary Street. Assuming the road commission has not been busy paving these in the last few weeks, I changed the following areas of Livingston county back to dirt. I haven't looked too closely to see if there are any more, but those are the ones from driving experience that stood out.
1) Hacker north of Golf Club Rd (major collector)
2) Hughes north of Golf Club Rd (minor collector)
While Street View is not always up-to-date, it provides a good, quick test as to whether the street should be upgraded to match NFC or not for roads that you may not drive often or at all. If Street View is not available, it probably means it's dirt or private, and Google therefore never drove it. In some cases, Street View is available, but it's clearly a dirt road. In some cases (as with the Hacker and Hughes examples), you see the transition from pavement to dirt clearly in Street View. In other cases, the road actually has been paved recently or planning is underway to pave it (as was done recently with Nixon Rd down to Chilson to support the new I-96/Latson Rd interchange), which you could only tell by driving it.
I just wanted to remind everyone to be careful when upgrading road types with the NFC maps, particularly in rural areas. A number of streets that MDOT classifies as major or minor collectors are dirt roads. In order to preserve the avoid/avoid long dirt road option in the client, the road type should remain "Dirt Road / 4x4 Trail" (unless the much-requested checkbox for dirt roads distinct from road type is now a new feature in the beta editor, and I'm not aware of it...).
When editing today, I noticed a few stretches that were recently changed to Primary Street. Assuming the road commission has not been busy paving these in the last few weeks, I changed the following areas of Livingston county back to dirt. I haven't looked too closely to see if there are any more, but those are the ones from driving experience that stood out.
1) Hacker north of Golf Club Rd (major collector)
2) Hughes north of Golf Club Rd (minor collector)
While Street View is not always up-to-date, it provides a good, quick test as to whether the street should be upgraded to match NFC or not for roads that you may not drive often or at all. If Street View is not available, it probably means it's dirt or private, and Google therefore never drove it. In some cases, Street View is available, but it's clearly a dirt road. In some cases (as with the Hacker and Hughes examples), you see the transition from pavement to dirt clearly in Street View. In other cases, the road actually has been paved recently or planning is underway to pave it (as was done recently with Nixon Rd down to Chilson to support the new I-96/Latson Rd interchange), which you could only tell by driving it.
Re: Overriding NFC Classification