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Misleading Lane Guidance Issue

Post by a2bpdq
A driver has reported an issue with lane guidance when approaching a roundabout.

A40(W) Golden Valley Bypass, Gloucestershire (Permalink)

The lane guidance does not give the correct lane for all routes through the roundabout. Should we remove the lane guidance here?

The lane guidance wouldn't normally be available for a roundabout but in this case there is another junction immediately before the roundabout. Just 100m before the roundabout a 5 lane road splits into two roads, 3 lanes left and 2 lanes right. So really the lane guidance here is all about the split and not about the roundabout at all. Drivers are not going to know that and would naturally assume that the lane guidance is preparing them for the roundabout.

If the split was the only feature then this guidance would be perfectly correct and suitable. However, the fact that there is a roundabout 100m after the split makes it unsuitable.

The way it is now could make it confusing for drivers approaching along the A40(W). A recent UR highlights the problem. (Permalink). The lane guidance for the left split will wrongly suggest it is alright to be in any lane, 1, 2 or 3, when only one of those lanes would be correct, depending on the destination.

┆ ↖ ┆ ↖ ┆ ↖ ┆   ┆   ┆ <<< The navigator display suggests using lane 1, 2 or 3 for the left split

After seeing this lane guidance for about 1km leading to the roundabout, getting comfortable with the idea of any lane will do, 1, 2 or 3, the driver then has only 100m to rush over to the correct lane for the roundabout.

To work appropriately, the lane guidance would need to specify which lanes are needed for each route through the roundabout.
RouteUse LaneLane Display
Elmbridge CourtLane 1↖ ┆   ┆   ┆   ┆
A417Lane 1↖ ┆   ┆   ┆   ┆
B4063 WestLane 2  ┆ ↖ ┆   ┆   ┆
B4063 EastLane 3  ┆   ┆ ↖ ┆   ┆
A40(W)Lanes 4&5  ┆   ┆   ┆ ↑┆ ↑
Meanwhile the lane guidance for the right split works out fine. (This only works because going along the right split is simpler. There are no further turns to make so either lane will do fine.)

┆   ┆   ┆   ┆ ↑┆ ↑┆ <<< The navigator display suggests using lane 4 or 5 for the right split

It seems to me that the lane guidance, in it's current form, cannot be configured to handle the selection of individual lanes. Therefore, what is shown to the driver heading down the left split is misleading.

I would suggest we consider either removing the lane guidance here altogether or changing it so that it will only show up for those going along the right split.

I think the lane guidance looks really good and would be very helpful at this junction if it could be made to work with matching destinations to individual lanes. However, it's not sophisticated enough yet to do the job properly. It can lead to drivers being in the wrong lane on a fast moving road and will reduce their confidence in Waze. That's why I suggest we remove it from the left split of this junction for now and wait for the lane guidance configuration to be improved in WME before we try using it again here. What do other editors think?
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Post by a2bpdq
Thanks for the feedback.

Thanks Kevin for those examples. They really show the problem is down to the distance between successive junctions. If it's too short then it's confusing.

Thanks Jon. I like the idea of doing some kind of work around but I don't see it working in this case. You say that a roundabout bypass will give 3 possible segments to route to, but 5 are needed, one per destination. The bypass might improve the situation but it would still be unsuitable. Taking this to the extreme and having a dedicated bypass segment for all 5 destinations would solve the lane guidance issue but would no longer resemble or work like a roundabout. It would look like Spaghetti Junction.

At the moment I definitely think it needs changing. I would like to try keeping the lane guidance for lanes 4 and 5. Lanes 1,2 and 3 will just have normal navigation without any lane guidance. It is better to have no guidance than bad guidance.
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Post by a2bpdq
I have had a look at having lane guidance for lanes 4 and 5 only. It doesn't look like it will work because the display icons for lanes 1, 2 and 3 would probably then show as exclamation marks.

┆  !┆  !┆  !┆ ↑┆ ↑┆

instead of

┆ ↖ ┆ ↖ ┆ ↖ ┆  ↑┆  ↑┆

For now it is better to remove the lane guidance completely and return the junction to its former pre-LG state.

I am going to test out the 5 lane split on a test road and see how it actually appears, without affecting any live roads. This will take a few days to update on the map and check in the app.
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Post by a2bpdq
I have now confirmed this with a 5 lane split on a test road. When only two lanes of the five are selected, the LG does not show at all. When all five are selected, the LG does show.
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Post by atrophicshiner
Kevintiobraid wrote:
I have had a look at having lane guidance for lanes 4 and 5 only. It doesn't look like it will work because the display icons for lanes 1, 2 and 3 would probably then show as exclamation marks.

┆  !┆  !┆  !┆ ↑┆ ↑┆
I think in this scenario, no lane guidance will show for any direction. But would be good if you could confirm this in real life.
Correct, if you do not fill in every lane choice no LG will be shown in the app, the exclamation marks are to highlight that the LG is not correctly setup.
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Post by jonv-uk
You could add a roundabout bypass segment for A417, giving the LG 3 possible segments to route to.
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Post by Kevintiobraid
I agree, deleting the lane guidance is probably the best compromise between URs appearing and having LG. I did notice a few URs here after I added LG, but wasn't getting any responses to confirm what the issue was.
I had a similar issue here: https://waze.com/en-GB/editor?env=row&l ... =240928495
where adding LG seemed to cause more confusion than help, so I deleted it. Also dithering over whether to keep LG here https://waze.com/en-GB/editor?env=row&l ... =312578937 , where there are two junctions in quick succession.
Lets hope individual lane LG and roundabout LG are in the pipeline.
(btw Gloucester isn't in my editing area anymore, so can't make any changes here...)
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Post by Kevintiobraid
I have had a look at having lane guidance for lanes 4 and 5 only. It doesn't look like it will work because the display icons for lanes 1, 2 and 3 would probably then show as exclamation marks.

┆  !┆  !┆  !┆ ↑┆ ↑┆
I think in this scenario, no lane guidance will show for any direction. But would be good if you could confirm this in real life.
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