Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/04/05/algorithmic-routing.html
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7 Likes
Brakes never made anyone go faster, but they are a nice thing to have.
16 Likes
Seems to be a common problem with GPS machines. People driving into golf course ponds and drowning or a Hungarian lorry driver’s SatNav sending him through the 16th century center of a town.
You’d think they would have figured out some way to indicate such things internally.
6 Likes
Occasionally I get sent via some weird route - nothing as deadly as Baxter Street, thank goodness. One would think they could respond to complaints by marking some streets hazardous - Shouldn’t take a programmer an hour, and a small call center to collect data. It’s true the 1% would immediately call their streets “hazardous,” but it’s a small price to pay.
8 Likes
I get why residents might be annoyed but at the same time it is a public street.
The bigger question for me is why people have a hard time navigating it. I can understand super long or very low vehicles having trouble, but a regular car should be able to handle a 32% grade.
11 Likes
Once while in San Diego (which has many ravines), I was in a car where the GPS suggested that we continue on the road we were on, as the road existed on both sides of a ravine, with only a 20-30 foot gap.
13 Likes
Sounds like people blaming Waze for a dangerous street. Perhaps the dangerous street should be addressed.
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A techological method is to put a red light or a barrier that will switch only for residents, making it a closed street, like this. https://goo.gl/maps/7Z9T4WgEByS2
IF you aren’t authorized a red light camera will fine you anyway.
1 Like
Baxter street is not in Echo Park. It is in Silver Lake. And it used to be a short cut that only locals knew about.
The LA Times reporter should know better.
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They could show it in the GIS as being a mile long (many little zig-zags) so the algorithms would not think it’s a short-cut.
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If there was a way to detect when Waze is diverting, put warning sirens on the street. (It wouldn’t really help, but people could get their cameras ready.)
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Baxter Street in Echo Park, East Los Angeles, is the fifth-steepest hill in America
citation needed
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I have kooked my way onto Baxter in the days of pre-ubiquitous phones, Waze has nothing to do with it. It’s bad street design, full stop.
Also, Hoarding public resources under some quasi-provincial stewardship is premium bougie take, 3/5 would chin-scratch again.
8 Likes
My spouse and I want to implement a harbor pilot idea for our area.
Non-locals or those new to the area must first ride with a local to learn the ins and outs of the area, best streets to use, where and how to merge, don’t stop in the traffic circle, it’s only a yield here, etc. Once trained the person can drive in the area on a trial basis.
3 Likes
Careening your way down Baxter Street,
Stomping on the brakes with both feet,
Well, another crazy day,
Forget the right-of-way,
Try your best to not hit anything.
Apologies to Gerry Rafferty
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I assume that visitors and delivery drivers are exempt somehow?
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Someone should sue them for a couple of million - then I think they’ll find out they actually could do that!
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Yeah or through the residential street where I live even though it runs parallel to a main axis with 3 lanes on each side. But I suppose the navs decide that drivers could save 23.0332 seconds, so it’s not rare to see 2 lorries desperately trying to get past each others in opposite directions, or a lorry stuck in front of a halted parcel service car.
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Maybe it’s different now but couple years ago Waze had the exit for BART on 580 actually on the freeway. All I did was request permission to be map editor (as it was community edited) and changed it myself. I imagine you could also mark the road as blocked (which you can do within Waze anyhow I believe ?
Maybe those were simpler times…
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