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Road Types (USA) – comprehensive overhaul of drivable roads

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Quick link: Proposed revision to Road Types (USA) drivable types (Freeway, Highways, Streets)

Road types aren't just for show, they make a difference in the routing server. The server doesn't have the time or resources to look at every single street between where you are and your destination, so it uses road types for guidance in selecting the best route for you. Road types aren't everything — of course, Waze uses actual and historical traffic speed data to select the fastest route for you at a given time — but they are important. They show Waze which roads to check when looking at that traffic speed data. So setting the type too low can mean Waze doesn't consider a road which may actually get you there faster.


Freeways are a fact of life. While freeways are by design often the fastest way from A to B, we all know this isn't the case every time. Sometimes a freeway just isn't convenient. Other times, freeways are clogged with traffic, while surface streets flow rather freely. Sometimes both situations are faced — without traffic, maybe the freeway adds 5 miles to your route, but it's faster anyway; today, though, the freeway is backed up and taking the 5-mile-shorter route will save you time.

Freeways are the highest type of road in Waze, often assumed by the routing server to be the best alternative. Sure, they often are, but that isn't always the case. For Waze to consider other roads as viable alternatives, there need to be other relatively high type roads — Major and Minor Highways — in the area for Waze to consider, or else you might just end up on the freeway in that traffic jam anyway.

Further, road types are increasingly important for longer routes. Yes, Waze is designed as a commuter application, but it'll provide routes up to a thousand miles. I've used Waze on dozens of thousand-mile-plus road trips, and it's performed admirably. And some people just have long commutes. Well, as we know, many lower-type roads are not considered at all by the routing server for routes longer than a certain length. The longer the route, the higher the road type has to be. For travel within a state, Minor Highways could be enough. For travel through the States, you want at least a Major Highway.

The current rules for setting road types in the United States are based on the physical characteristics of the road and are somewhat nebulous. The vagueness of the standards leads to inconsistent application, with editors in different parts of the country using different criteria for choosing road types. This leads to an inconsistent user experience across the country, even within states. It's even led to disputes, with editors who disagree on what type best suits a particular road, switching the type of a road back and forth.


Luckily, the federal government has a solution for us. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has come up with a set of standards by which every road in the country is judged: functional classification (very short explanation here). The functional classification of a road is determined both by the physical characteristics of a road and by the Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) — the number of cars that, on average, drive on a particular road each day. Each road is therefore placed in one of the functional classes; each functional class describes a particular usage scenario for the roads in it. The functional classification criteria are passed on to the several States, and each state's department of transportation in turn uses the criteria and their own research to gather information, to classify roads, and to publish maps showing the functional class of every road in the state.

The federal government further provides guidance to us by designating roads as parts of the Interstate Highway System and the United States Numbered Highways system. The roads themselves are built and maintained by the states; but in selecting the routes, the federal government identifies a network of important long-distance travel routes throughout the country. Finally, the government of each State (and D.C., and some territories) designates roads as parts of its respective state highway system; these routes are selected for their importance in travel within a particular state.

Luckily for us, functional classification and the various highway systems comport quite well with Waze's set of road types.
Functional class / highway systemWaze road type
FC: Interstates
FC: Other Freeways and Expressways (some)
HS: Interstate
Freeway
FC: Other Freeways and Expressways (others)
FC: Other Principal Arterials
HS: U.S. Highways
Major Highway
FC: Other Arterials
HS: State Highways
Minor Highway
FC: Major Collectors
FC: Minor Collectors
HS: County Routes
Primary Street
FC: LocalStreet
This system has already been put into place for testing in various metropolitan areas, including New Orleans and Detroit. Besides the clear improvement in definitiveness of road type selection, many other editors and I have noticed a marked difference in the performance of the routing server and in other aspects of Waze since implementing the systems.

Advantages
  • Waze is more likely to select the best possible route at the start, without you having to ask for alternatives
  • Waze is more likely to select alternative routes in the case of clogged freeways
  • The map display becomes more useful, showing the most important roads with thicker lines and at higher zoom levels — and, bonus, allowing you to see at a glance where the "downtown" area of a city is (examples: New Orleans; Detroit)
  • As said above, as a well-defined system, it does not allow for disputes and may make frivolous edits easier to discover
Disadvantages
  • Temporary: Currently, road type is the primary factor used to judge traffic jam highlighting. That said, I've been using Waze daily in New Orleans for months with this system in place and have not seen any instances of erroneous jam highlighting. Also, staff has announced that road type is soon to be replaced as the principal jam-highlight criterion with something else based on the actual jam-free speed of the road.
Many discussions have been had about the merits of such a system, and most editors have come out in favor of such a system. Experience will show that this system works, and it works well. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of editing, and it has the potential to improve routing considerably. In fact, many editors are using this system already in their states and areas.


Here is the proposed page: https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/Road_types/USA/Revision


Note: As you'll see, this doesn't cover non-drivable and non-public road types (parking lot roads, private roads, walking trails, etc.). While much of that section of the article does need revision, it should be carried out in another thread.

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Last edited by sketch on Thu Apr 17, 2014 5:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: revision page link changed

Post by Inactive user -1649923503-
I think one thing that we all are skirting around is the fact that by using functional class we are taking away the subjective element to the road type process. Yes there are times we deviate and as voludu2 indicate there should be a wiki on that but that is because without deviating the routing servers wouldn't work correctly. We should remove the dictionary definition as it maybe more applicable for international editors that don't have a government established classification system but we all can think of times where one road looks and feels the same as another but has a different FC. Not our place to ask why.


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Post by Inactive user -1697532064-
That fly-in community looks like a good area to show both the drivable taxiways mapped as streets and the runway mapped as a taxiway and not connected to the drivable road network. I agree with the edits that you are suggesting, and that it's confusing to have that taxiway segment mapped in the picture.
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Post by Inactive user -1697532064-
(missed sketch's last post) I agree that the "dictionary definition" vs "legal definition" paragraph doesn't help in understanding which roads are classified as highways in Waze. Considering sources of government funding, it seems that we may even be closer to the legal definition than the dictionary definition in many cases.

As for FC continuity, can we be specific about which roads get upgraded to provide connections? I like sketch's illustration, but what criteria determine whether a road like this that connects an interchange to another highway gets upgraded to the same type of the highway. Must it have signage to that highway and be under a certain length?

Two other things with the page:
the1who wrote:I have an issue with the https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/Road_types/U ... .2FTaxiway Wiki.

When I review it, I read it, and then I see the image next to it, the image referenced is very misleading. I say this as the text says, do not map taxiways, but yet the image shows runway/taxiway road type for a bit of a taxiway between the runway threshold and the community, which the wiki is saying don't map. Can someone either replace the image or modify the example? Thanks!
I would like to propose replacing the image in question with https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/images/thumb ... Runway.JPG. Even though it is less informative, it would match the kinds of images provided for other road types and not be misleading.

Also, in https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/Road_types/USA#Driveways, I would like to change the first sentence of the paragraph to "Residents of most urban communities have very short driveways between the named road they live on and the garage or carport on their property." That's more accurate.
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Last edited by Inactive user -1697532064- on Fri Jul 15, 2016 4:40 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by Inactive user -1697532064-
I have made a draft with some of the changes discussed here, including an explanation for why some highways don't look like highways, a paragraph on bumping up the type of signed connecting roads, a new image for the runway type (my own work, different from what I posted on this thread) and a small change in wording in the driveways section. Only sections where a change is proposed are included in the draft, and I didn't include anything about railroads, although I know that was discussed recently too. Any corrections to content or format are appreciated :)

If anyone would like to take a look and give feedback, my draft is at https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/User:Kartogr ... _types/USA

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Last edited by PesachZ on Wed Aug 03, 2016 5:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: tag link so it is clickable
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Post by Inactive user -1697532064-
It seems like the main guidance change that YouTube00crashtest was doing was saying that Interstate routes with stop lights should not be freeways. This is current practice in some places such as I-70 in PA and I-78 in NJ, but it conflicts with the wiki. I don't know enough about routing to say what the rule should be, but I think consistency is good.
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Post by Inactive user -1697532064-
I have updated the USA Road Types page with the changes in my draft. Thanks to all who reviewed and commented on it.
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Post by Inactive user -1697532064-
I tested the checkbox today on a road in my neighborhood, and although the road type Unpaved will cause routing avoidance, the checkbox does nothing.
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Post by Inactive user -1697532064-
Yes, the routing preference has been set to "preferred" on your example. It just bumps the road type up 1 on the continuum from street to freeway for routing purposes, although the road will display as its nominal road type. Routing preference can also be set to bump the routing type down, and these settings can only be changed by R5+ I believe.
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Post by Inactive user -1697532064-
That road is at L2; seems like the routing preference setting is functioning as a lock though. If there are other issues with the road, you should ask the editor who last touched it to remove the routing preference so that you can fix, and maybe he could explain why it was set that way in the process.
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Post by AlanOfTheBerg
So much fun discussion! Did I miss any routing test users chiming in that the new routing code does a much better job of using mH and primary street, using speed data rather than pruning based only on road type?
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