Waze

[dave123456]

Is there a way that anyone knows of, to give Waze or Google maps a de minimis level of road quality?

I’ve noticed it has a tendency to send you ‘as the crow flies’ and often end up on some fairly sketchy lanes. Obviously I could buy an atlas but I wondered if there is the ability to set it to avoid where possible.

On the same subject I have noticed it is not as good as it used to be at avoiding roadworks or at least predicting them… or maybe there’s more roadworks!

Thanks

[supacool1]

There is a route profile in the settings for Waze for Fastest, efficient, direct routes etc...And you can set up your vehicle for something bigger than a car to avoid it routing you down narrow ass country lanes.

[Redline88]

supacool1 said:

There is a route profile in the settings for Waze for Fastest, efficient, direct routes etc...And you can set up your vehicle for something bigger than a car to avoid it routing you down narrow ass country lanes.

How do you do this? I can only see options under vehicle type for private, taxi or motorcycle.

[thetapeworm]

When you edit roads in Waze there's various road types you can assign and other markers to make them non-preferred, mark the width, set it as a "narrow street" or even "off-road / no maintained" amongst others but it's highly unlikely anything would be changed for a road that's just a bit crappy rather than an actual dirt track.

If it's genuinely dangerous or a route people really shouldn't be using unless it's for access etc report it in the Waze app and an editor will have a look.

On the roadworks there seems to be a frustrating increase in people clicking the "not there" prompt when approaching roadworks that very much are just to get the banner off screen. You can report long-term ones and someone with sufficient rights can add them to the map for set dates but it's a bit of a faff given how many there are. Editors used to be able to see an overlay if them from a central source and add / remove them but generally I think they are left to users to report at the time.

Edited by thetapeworm on Thursday 23 January 09:08

[neverlifted]

Is there an option to 'avoid width restrictors'? Would be useful for trips to London town.

[durbster]

Yeah, Waze is absolutely hopeless in places like Devon and Cornwall and I haven't been able to find a good solution to it. It doesn't seem to understand that sending you onto 15 miles of farm track, negotiating tractors and fording rivers is not an improvement over two minutes of slow motorway traffic.

I've also realise I am now so conditioned to using satnav that I think I've lost any sense of direction I ever had. I do check the route before I leave, but I don't always notice when it's changed itself until the dreaded feeling of taking the left turn, and seeing the hedges narrow and the road markings disappear. I don't mind the scenic route sometimes but when you're on a long drive, it's just a pain in the arse.

I wish it had a minimum time saving option for re-routing. If I'm doing an 8 hour drive, I don't want to come off the main route unless it's going to save me a significant amount of time.

I'm going to try Here WeGo on my next trip, and see if that's any smarter. I wouldn't even mind paying for one if it solved the problem.

[Alickadoo]

durbster said:

Yeah, Waze is absolutely hopeless in places like Devon and Cornwall and I haven't been able to find a good solution to it. It doesn't seem to understand that sending you onto 15 miles of farm track, negotiating tractors and fording rivers is not an improvement over two minutes of slow motorway traffic.

I've also realise I am now so conditioned to using satnav that I think I've lost any sense of direction I ever had. I do check the route before I leave, but I don't always notice when it's changed itself until the dreaded feeling of taking the left turn, and seeing the hedges narrow and the road markings disappear. I don't mind the scenic route sometimes but when you're on a long drive, it's just a pain in the arse.

I wish it had a minimum time saving option for re-routing. If I'm doing an 8 hour drive, I don't want to come off the main route unless it's going to save me a significant amount of time.

I'm going to try Here WeGo on my next trip, and see if that's any smarter. I wouldn't even mind paying for one if it solved the problem.

https://www.here.com/products/wego

[the-norseman]

I mainly use Waze for the camera/police warnings, does Here Wego do that as well?

[RicksAlfas]

durbster said:

Yeah, Waze is absolutely hopeless in places like Devon and Cornwall and I haven't been able to find a good solution to it. It doesn't seem to understand that sending you onto 15 miles of farm track, negotiating tractors and fording rivers is not an improvement over two minutes of slow motorway traffic.

Make sure you have "unpaved roads" switched to "don't allow".
Settings > Navigation

[timberman]

durbster said:

Yeah, Waze is absolutely hopeless in places like Devon and Cornwall and I haven't been able to find a good solution to it. It doesn't seem to understand that sending you onto 15 miles of farm track, negotiating tractors and fording rivers is not an improvement over two minutes of slow motorway traffic.

I've also realise I am now so conditioned to using satnav that I think I've lost any sense of direction I ever had. I do check the route before I leave, but I don't always notice when it's changed itself until the dreaded feeling of taking the left turn, and seeing the hedges narrow and the road markings disappear. I don't mind the scenic route sometimes but when you're on a long drive, it's just a pain in the arse.

I wish it had a minimum time saving option for re-routing. If I'm doing an 8 hour drive, I don't want to come off the main route unless it's going to save me a significant amount of time.

I'm going to try Here WeGo on my next trip, and see if that's any smarter. I wouldn't even mind paying for one if it solved the problem.

I feel your pain.

I'm a regular Waze user, even on journeys where I know the route just to let me know if there are any hazards along the way,

Once while on holiday in south Devon, and heading out for an evening meal somewhere near Kingsbridge, I obediently followed all the instructions telling me to head along a track not really suitable for any car, but having an SUV at the time and not having a clue where we were I kept going and eventually arrived at a cattle shed full of cows and no way of proceeding without crossing a field.

It would also send us down dirt tracks which were often less than Half a mile long, to end up back on the road we just left, but just a bit further along which was quite frustrating.

One of my biggest frustrations is that it will quite happily find us a route that's an extra 20 miles on faster roads just to save 30 seconds of journey time, which when I'm driving an EV really isn't what I'm looking for and I'm rarely in a hurry to get anywhere so would much sooner (within reason) go the shorter more efficient route,

I've tried changing the settings but never found anything that makes a noticeable difference, and on longer journeys, will now often look at the map to try and find the most direct route then add a stop off point along the route just to stop it trying to send me the long way

Edited by timberman on Thursday 23 January 10:33

[timberman]

RicksAlfas said:

durbster said:

Yeah, Waze is absolutely hopeless in places like Devon and Cornwall and I haven't been able to find a good solution to it. It doesn't seem to understand that sending you onto 15 miles of farm track, negotiating tractors and fording rivers is not an improvement over two minutes of slow motorway traffic.

Make sure you have "unpaved roads" switched to "don't allow".
Settings > Navigation

I've always had it set up that way but it still seems happy to send me down dirt tracks,

I must have a different definition of "unpaved roads" to Waze

[fooman]

I usually switch between Waze and Google Maps. I find Waze will take you a complicated route to save a few seconds (and occasionally minutes) while Google takes a more main road way. When I just want an easy drive I use Google.

The main thing that bugs me about Waze though is it announces instructions for roundabout or junction a couple of miles before you arrive, often with several minutes of traffic lights and lane changes before then so it seems pointlessly early. I wish I could change this threshold!

[durbster]

I always turn the audio instructions off. Come to think of it, maybe that's why I keep missing when it re-routes

[dave123456]

timberman said:

durbster said:

Yeah, Waze is absolutely hopeless in places like Devon and Cornwall and I haven't been able to find a good solution to it. It doesn't seem to understand that sending you onto 15 miles of farm track, negotiating tractors and fording rivers is not an improvement over two minutes of slow motorway traffic.

I've also realise I am now so conditioned to using satnav that I think I've lost any sense of direction I ever had. I do check the route before I leave, but I don't always notice when it's changed itself until the dreaded feeling of taking the left turn, and seeing the hedges narrow and the road markings disappear. I don't mind the scenic route sometimes but when you're on a long drive, it's just a pain in the arse.

I wish it had a minimum time saving option for re-routing. If I'm doing an 8 hour drive, I don't want to come off the main route unless it's going to save me a significant amount of time.

I'm going to try Here WeGo on my next trip, and see if that's any smarter. I wouldn't even mind paying for one if it solved the problem.

I feel your pain.

I'm a regular Waze user, even on journeys where I know the route just to let me know if there are any hazards along the way,

Once while on holiday in south Devon, and heading out for an evening meal somewhere near Kingsbridge, I obediently followed all the instructions telling me to head along a track not really suitable for any car, but having an SUV at the time and not having a clue where we were I kept going and eventually arrived at a cattle shed full of cows and no way of proceeding without crossing a field.

It would also send us down dirt tracks which were often less than Half a mile long, to end up back on the road we just left, but just a bit further along which was quite frustrating.

One of my biggest frustrations is that it will quite happily find us a route that's an extra 20 miles on faster roads just to save 30 seconds of journey time, which when I'm driving an EV really isn't what I'm looking for and I'm rarely in a hurry to get anywhere so would much sooner (within reason) go the shorter more efficient route,

I've tried changing the settings but never found anything that makes a noticeable difference, and on longer journeys, will now often look at the map to try and find the most direct route then add a stop off point along the route just to stop it trying to send me the long way

Edited by timberman on Thursday 23 January 10:33

I’m in Norfolk and it’s very similar. I too have acquiesced any navigation to satnav and feel the need to recover it. At least google maps allows you to see the routes before you start, and choose of the available, Waze seems to skip over that part…

[V12 Migaloo]

I have deleted Waze from my phone, the other night, arriving late at Gatwick North Terminal, the road was closed to the south Terminal and hence the route to the M23/M25, waze took me home to Guildford through every B road imaginable, and after a 14 hour day and 2 hour flight arriving at midnight was not what I expected nor wanted. 1hr 45 minutes.

[anotherjohnv]

A big limitation with Waze I've found is the 'avoid motorways'. It's binary, there should be a 'where sensible' caveat. An extreme example is getting to the channel tunnel in France. It's actually impossible with the avoid motorways option on. Again, getting to le Havre, if you forget to turn it off it will avoid the bridge, and take you on a 120 mile detour.