CBenson wrote:How do you manage to get directions that tell you to continue on "I- 15 N?" Waze only tells me if there is a turn.

It depends on whether the freeway onramp is named correctly, doesn't it?

And I also am totally in favor of including the directionality in a split direction roadway until Waze automatically uses the odd/even number to determine this. If I am traveling on I-5 and I get an alert about an accident on I-5 ahead of me from a wazer, I don't know if that's in my direction or not. I could take action to use an offramp and an alternate route if it will directly affect my direction. (True, the rubberneckers and gawkers will also slow down my direction even when the accident is on the other side of the freeway, but the slowdown will usually not be nearly as bad.

CBenson wrote:I'm not sure I understand. The onramp only comes into play when you enter the freeway. Does waze ever give you instructions to continue on the freeway once your on it?

True. I misunderstood the conversation.

CBenson wrote:The odd/even convention only works for primary routes. It doesn't hold up well for loops and spurs that derive their number from the primary route that they are associated with.

Again, true. I have non-primaries which both follow the same general direction as the primary, or perpendicular.

CBenson wrote:I'm never quite sure how to handle the situation where I see a back up on the other side of the freeway.

I report it as a traffic jam as there is no accident physically impeding my travel.

CBenson wrote:This makes perfect sense to me. But I'm not sure how to get it to work in practice. For instance, I get no navigation prompt as US 50 changes to New York Ave NE here: http://www.waze.com/cartouche/?zoom=5&l ... FFFFFFTTTT
Nor do I get a navigation prompt when New York Ave NE changes to New York Ave NW here: http://www.waze.com/cartouche/?zoom=6&l ... FFFFFFTTTT

That's because there isn't a big enough angle between the two. I don't remember what it is, but there is an angle which will trigger the "keep left/right" prompt and another triggers "turn left/right." However, I do not believe there is a "continue" type of prompt even for a name change.

This actually causes client interface issues in routing, too, which I called out in the iPhone beta .22 thread in the Client forum.

I have been trying to follow the wiki (for the US highway naming). My default is that more information is better than less. However, the directionality seems to be rarely used. And where it is used it is frequently problematic.

The freeway names are rarely used in any of my directions. The ramp names are used so the directionality of the freeway doesn't appear in the directions.

The display of freeways where the inline names have directionality is also a problem. Where the zoom level shows separate carraigeways, the directionality is helpful. But where the map is zoomed out and the carraigeways are not distinct, the diplay of directionality is not helpful. For instance I have labled I-97 with directionality. If you zoom out, I-97 appears to be randomly labeled I -97 N and I -97 S.

The wiki instructions seem to based on the hope that the directionality can be used appropriately in the future. As you say, the base map data doesn't include the directionality. It seems like a lot work to put it in on faith that it might be used in the future. Especially as it causes some problems now.

On a side note, I hate the US Hwy ## and State Hwy ## convention for the US. The "Hwy" should be implied - it simply takes up valuable screen real estate without adding any useful information. I would prefer US ## and LL ##, where LL is the state abreviation.

unwallflower wrote:It's nice to see the client tell me to continue on "I- 15 N" rather than just "I- 15".

How do you manage to get directions that tell you to continue on "I- 15 N?" Waze only tells me if there is a turn.

AlanOfTheBerg wrote:

CBenson wrote:How do you manage to get directions that tell you to continue on "I- 15 N?" Waze only tells me if there is a turn.

It depends on whether the freeway onramp is named correctly, doesn't it?

I'm not sure I understand. The onramp only comes into play when you enter the freeway. Does waze ever give you instructions to continue on the freeway once you're on it? There are plenty of circumstances where I wish it would, such as at major interchanges or where a primary route number leaves the freeway.

AlanOfTheBerg wrote:And I also am totally in favor of including the directionality in a split direction roadway until Waze automatically uses the odd/even number to determine this.

The odd/even convention only works for primary routes. It doesn't hold up well for loops and spurs that derive their number from the primary route that they are associated with. I'm never quite sure how to label the directionality of beltways.

AlanOfTheBerg wrote:If I am traveling on I-5 and I get an alert about an accident on I-5 ahead of me from a wazer, I don't know if that's in my direction or not. I could take action to use an offramp and an alternate route if it will directly affect my direction. (True, the rubberneckers and gawkers will also slow down my direction even when the accident is on the other side of the freeway, but the slowdown will usually not be nearly as bad.

This assumes that no one going the other way is going to report the accident. I have passed far more accidents that are on the lanes going the other direction than on the lanes that I am travelling. I'm never quite sure how to handle the situation where I see a back up on the other side of the freeway.

unwallflower wrote:To clarify, the "continue on XX freeway" thing was just laziness on my part... and maybe a bit of wishful thinking.

You had my hopes up for a moment.

gerben wrote:The trick is to name the ongoing part different than the 'feeding' part.

Example:
http://world.waze.com/cartouche/?zoom=4 ... FTFTFFTTTT

The ongoing northbound lane has a temporary addition in it's name (ri Zwolle ie. richting Zwolle which translates to direction Zwolle). Because both 'to' lanes are named differently than the 'from' lane, there is a forced navigation prompt. After the interchange, the freeway has once again only it's number (A50) in it's name.

This makes perfect sense to me. But I'm not sure how to get it to work in practice. For instance, I get no navigation prompt as US 50 changes to New York Ave NE here: http://www.waze.com/cartouche/?zoom=5&l ... FFFFFFTTTT
Nor do I get a navigation prompt when New York Ave NE changes to New York Ave NW here: http://www.waze.com/cartouche/?zoom=6&l ... FFFFFFTTTT

gerben wrote: I forgot to mention a few 'rules':
- This method works only on Y junctions where you travel from the bottom to the top.
- All parts of the Y need to be the same road type

As far as I can see, in your examples you are basically going straight ahead, and the 'feeling' of the path across the junction is going straight ahead, so no prompt is needed.

Thanks, I got it now. This is very helpful.

The more I think about it the more I wonder why direction ever needed to be included! 2-way roads don't have any less need yet we get by!

Ultimately the client/server/waze should be able to determine the direction to append to any reports anyway!

Another source of frustration which will give way to less important client upgrades I imagine!