Waze forum

Just to confirm, I looked at what the system thinks a dirt road is and the consequences (won't map if checked not to drive, and no name on it etc), but the picture showed two tire tracks on dirt.
Some concessions that can go for quite a ways are dirt roads, but I wouldn't consider them a 4x4 route. As well because they go such a distance I would assume you would want the name displayed...

How should these be marked when editing

Thanks again

This is a local decision & depends on what the general users would expect the feature should avoid.

In places like New York & Connecticut, anything unpaved is considered a dirt road... Up this way we get a significant number of URs where Waze routed someone down an unpaved street with the "Avoid Dirt Roads" setting on...

In other places, where many streets are unpaved (like mentioned above), & you need a 4x4 SUV/Pickup/etc and not a sedan to drive on the road they are marked as dirt roads.

If you need an ATV, the road should not be mapped as Waze is not for off-roading.

Where are you located?

AndyPoms wrote:In other places, where many streets are unpaved (like mentioned above), & you need a 4x4 SUV/Pickup/etc and not a sedan to drive on the road they are marked as dirt roads

I would call that a 4x4 road, and not a dirt road. At least where I live most unpaved roads are perfectly drivable with a regular sedan most times of the year. The only time that can be a bit finicky is during winter where those kinds of roads are NOT cleared from snow. Most 4x4 trails are not oftenly travelled, as well as has clear deeper tracks at least here so there is somewhat of a difference here.

By sledge!

Well, then don't mark them as 4x4. It is all in the definition (that must be in accordance with the expectations of the users in your country).

smokeeater wrote:I'm about an hour north of Toronto, Canada

Sorry - can't resit it. Is that an hour by dirt road or an hour by freeway?

There has been considerable discussion about this. Some editors believe any unpaved road should be classed this way. Since I am from a more rural area I know that there is more difference between a 4x4 trail and a dirt road than there is between a street and a minor highway. Until there is a separation between them I only mark 4x4 trails with the current combined road type. Dirt roads I mark as streets.

Waze really needs to distinguish between Dirt Roads and 4x4 trails: They are completely different.

A better way to distinguish would be to create a new category: Unpaved street.

Where I live part time in the mountains of North Carolina, a lot of roads are unpaved but are maintained (and snow plowed when needed) on a regular basis by the North Carolina State Highway department. They have state route numbers and quite a few have names also. They are all eminently driveable by sedans etc. and I have driven on quite a few of them. They just do not have enough traffic to justify tax payer money being spent to pave them but are otherwise regular "streets".

A lot of places would be unreachable if these unpaved roads were "unnamed" by marking them as "Dirt Roads" in Waze.

I'm about an hour north of Toronto, Canada