Google maps avoid local access roads "L104" etc?

Isambard

MJohnston wrote: »

Listen Mr Clarkson, it may be a great drive, but it's a really low quality road.

It's been improved a lot in recent years, but it's really the tourist traffic that would keep you off that road rather than the quality of the road itself. If you love driving for it's own sake, it's one of the best

MJohnston

Isambard wrote: »

It's been improved a lot in recent years, but it's really the tourist traffic that would keep you off that road rather than the quality of the road itself. If you love driving for it's own sake, it's one of the best

If it was one way, it would be a hell of a lot better. But it's nothing at all like the Naas Road, which was the original point, even though they're the same designation.

Charles Babbage

Google have access to travel speeds on roads from their own devices and this should, at least in time, lead to better routes. If they were really smart they would give a higher weight to routes used by regular users. Blanket avoidance of L roads would be silly, L roads < 4999 are generally not much different from R routes and often have many stretches suitable for 80Kmh. Higher L numbers less so.

Isambard

personally I think there's a need for an extra designation for trunk N roads. We now are at the position where some R roads are better and more used than some N roads. The difference seems to be mainly how they are funded.

tabbey

coylemj wrote: »

+1 the road category doesn't necessarily tell you the quality of the road as in the width, lack of tight bends and surface quality.

For example, the N7 out of Dublin from the M50 to the first Naas exit is an three lane dual carriageway and is an 'N' road as is the part of the ring of Kerry route between Killarney and Moll's Gap, most of which is a horrendous road to drive with narrow stretches and an endless series of bends.

The N7 Naas Road and the N70 Ring of Kerry are not the same;

The N7 is a National Primary route,

The N70 is a National Secondary route.

I would agree that many national secondary roads should really be regional, there is nothing national about the Ring Of Kerry.

This is a political matter, national roads are fully resourced by the National Roads Authority, TII or whatever they call it now. The Kerry Bull, or one of his predecessors, may well have had an influence in this regard.

coylemj

tabbey wrote: »

The N7 Naas Road and the N70 Ring of Kerry are not the same;

The N7 is a National Primary route,

The N70 is a National Secondary route.

The point being made here is that navigation s/w treats any 'N' road as being superior to any 'R' or 'L' road. Whether the particular N road is a primary or secondary route is irrelevant.

Given the choice and unless you specify 'shortest route', navigation s/w will always send you down an 'N' road in preference to an 'R' road even though the 'R' road could be a far superior route.

Example, this is an 'N' road, the Ring of Kerry (N71) between Killarney and Moll's Gap...

https://goo.gl/maps/KR2SYttVKS52

And this is an 'R' road, the R569 which runs east of Kenmare via Kilgarvan to the N22.

https://goo.gl/maps/7Ve2KLYS4NT2

Capt'n Midnight

Wasn't someone doing "green" mapping where your journey was optimised for fuel consumption, so less stop/start, more roundabouts , less lights and less speed changes. I'd rather do a constant 60 than a rat-running 50.

Avoiding speed bumps would be another one.

I find that daytime google maps makes very small white roads nearly invisible against the white background - handy if you are counting turns.