jkf
14hr ago
Trucks aren't the only issue though -- around here there are roads that deadend, but have an unbuilt easement or farm road (on private property, but mapped for whatever reasons) making them appear like a nice shortcut to GPS algos. This is a bigger problem for highway combos (nowhere to turn around), but still can create a lot of unnecessary traffic on crummy little roads in the summer when there's a lot of non-locals tooling around glued to their screens.
"Local Traffic Only" would work I suppose, but that one gets abused by local governments when they get too many complaints from residents about people using crummy little roads that actually go through as shortcuts, and also depends on one's definition of "local" -- specifically calling out GPS issues would be useful I think.
Sounds nice in theory, but IME contacting Google is... low priority for them. I didn't try contacting the appropriate governing body, but considering the way that they prioritize other things that seem more directly in their wheelhouse, I wouldn't expect it to be much better.
In one of the cases that I know about, the map's not wrong -- there's an easement there! It should be on the map; nothing on any government map I've seen indicates it as a passable road.
The other one is not on any map -- it's just an access track that the former farmer used to get from one field to another, prior to the road being built. It does stick out like a sore thumb on satellite photos, so my working hypothesis is that Google (and whoever else) did not strictly stick to whatever GIS files they got their hands on.
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