Off-Too-Early
Off-and-On
Editors have seen many examples of Waze advising going off and back on again, taking Wazers off a seemingly quiet motorway, then back on to the same motorway. Here is one that is a little different and I think we can identify the cause.
Off-Too-Early
Going West on the M4 at Newport, Wales. Just before the Brynglas Tunnels. There are two junctions close together. J25 is followed by J25A. Permalink
Drivers heading for J25A are often taken off too early by Waze and guided to come off at J25, go around a roundabout and then follow a Link Road that merges with M4 off-ramp at J25A.
Red route quicker - Blue route Off-Too-Early
It doesn't happen all the time but it seems to happen when the motorway is busier between 4:30pm and 6pm on weekdays.
Timings show that staying on the M4 until J25A is faster than coming off early. So why does Waze regularly advise coming off at the junction before?
I think this picture explains a lot. It was taken at one of the times when Waze was advising to come off early (approximately 5pm on 19th October 2017).
Looking West - M4(W) is on the Left - Link Road is on the Far Left
Notice how the M4(W) is actually jammed up and the Link Road to the far left is free of traffic. But also notice how the inside lane of the M4 is fairly clear and flowing.
Unfortunately Waze is using the combined M4(W) timings from all three lanes. If it knew the timings for the inside lane and could separate these from the timings of the middle and outside lanes, Waze would probably choose to use the inside lane instead of the Link Road.
We probably just need to put in an inside lane. It's actually a filter lane and starts back at J25. The "Keep Left" should happen at the start of the filter lane and possibly be repeated again at the turn off.
This would then allow a fairer choice of the two routes to J25A and if the filter lane is blocked then Waze would be able to divert around it using the roundabout and Link Road.
I thought about using a Junction box but they are not to be used with roundabouts and also the size of the box needed would be larger than the 0.01° limit.
Can anyone see anything wrong with this proposed solution?
Editors have seen many examples of Waze advising going off and back on again, taking Wazers off a seemingly quiet motorway, then back on to the same motorway. Here is one that is a little different and I think we can identify the cause.
Off-Too-Early
Going West on the M4 at Newport, Wales. Just before the Brynglas Tunnels. There are two junctions close together. J25 is followed by J25A. Permalink
Drivers heading for J25A are often taken off too early by Waze and guided to come off at J25, go around a roundabout and then follow a Link Road that merges with M4 off-ramp at J25A.
Red route quicker - Blue route Off-Too-Early
It doesn't happen all the time but it seems to happen when the motorway is busier between 4:30pm and 6pm on weekdays.
Timings show that staying on the M4 until J25A is faster than coming off early. So why does Waze regularly advise coming off at the junction before?
I think this picture explains a lot. It was taken at one of the times when Waze was advising to come off early (approximately 5pm on 19th October 2017).
Looking West - M4(W) is on the Left - Link Road is on the Far Left
Notice how the M4(W) is actually jammed up and the Link Road to the far left is free of traffic. But also notice how the inside lane of the M4 is fairly clear and flowing.
Unfortunately Waze is using the combined M4(W) timings from all three lanes. If it knew the timings for the inside lane and could separate these from the timings of the middle and outside lanes, Waze would probably choose to use the inside lane instead of the Link Road.
We probably just need to put in an inside lane. It's actually a filter lane and starts back at J25. The "Keep Left" should happen at the start of the filter lane and possibly be repeated again at the turn off.
This would then allow a fairer choice of the two routes to J25A and if the filter lane is blocked then Waze would be able to divert around it using the roundabout and Link Road.
I thought about using a Junction box but they are not to be used with roundabouts and also the size of the box needed would be larger than the 0.01° limit.
Can anyone see anything wrong with this proposed solution?
Re: Off-Too-Early