The main reason we don't like using too many parking lot roads is that they clutter up the map.

However, as an actual client in an unfamiliar parking lot, especially big ones, I can get very turned around. The way parking lot roads display in the client is exactly the same as roads, and the gps struggling to 'snap to' whatever's closest can get me even more confused, because I'm often snapped to a road that's at a 90 degree angle to me and don't realize it.

I've noticed, as a client, that getting into and out of parking lots that actually have the lanes mapped (which is against the standard policy, I know), is much easier to figure out where I am and which way I want to go. As soon as I pull out of the space, I snap to the lane I'm in, and the directions are either correct or they're for the opposite direction of travel in which case moving forward a few feet will recalculate the route really quickly.

However, I agree, they clutter up both the WME and the client.

So I was thinking of devaluing the display of parking lot roads even further than they already do. I notice that incomplete, red roads, are really thin lines. Perhaps using the same type of line (but white once state/country data is added) would work within WME.

Within the client, if possible, it could ignore and simply not display parking lot roads unless they are on your route. Parking lot roads that aren't on your route would be invisible, client-side.

The long and short of it is, when routing into or out of a parking lot on your client, instead of a weird complicated map with either too many lines or not enough lines, you have one line...which is all you need to get in or out of the lot. In WME, it would be complicated of course, but if you make the lines thin and small and only visible at maximum zoom, it shouldn't clutter up the WME much either.

That reduces the clutter (visually at least), but keeps the functionality and usability. It also goes in line with something I read somewhere that the eventual goal of Waze is to map all driveable areas.

Parking lot landmarks could still be used in places like multi-level parking garages and stuff, or especially for paid parking lots, or named parking lots.

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There is an alternate suggestion, though. Which is to, on client-side, ignore the 'snap to' effect when you're in an area marked as a parking lot in WME. But that's just another form of clutter, in my opinion, if we start labeling every single lot. It'll also cause a lot of conflict with other landmarks, as well as make it harder to find landmarks that aren't parking lots in general as they currently share the same color.