NOTE: I am a new local guide. If this is the wrong place to ask this question, please let me know where it should be posted.
A home based business is located on a busy street. The customer entrance is located at the back of the house There is a parking lot there for customers that can be entered from an intersecting street that is not busy. I’ve moved the pointer to the back of the building, but now navigation takes drivers to the front of the home (on the busy street with no parking spaces) and shows a walking path to the back. If drivers tried to follow these instructions it would cause a major traffic problem.
How can I tell navigation to turn onto the adjacent quiet street and enter the customer parking lot?
P.S. The business in question is J Sam’s Barber Shop in Fayetteville, GA
I think you are on the right path. Moving the pin is all we can do to try to fix this.
Since Google Maps is distributed on a lot of servers you need to allow them so get properly synchronized before testing the effect of moving the pin. Waiting for a week might not be long enough.
Secondly, I remember discussions about a “second” pin not visible to Maps users which marks the entry and not just the center of the building. But this was related to huge buildings.
Sorry this is not a complete answer. Hopefully others can assist you further. Maybe @Flash can?
One more idea. I remember seeing separate parking pins being added. That might be the best solution as you don’t need pedestrians to navigate to the parking lot but the front door.
Right now there’s no such a feature on Maps, but I believe if only one Googler sees this post, should follow it up until it’s implanted in the app! And if they really care, they won’t even ask you to submit in the “idea exchange” because it’s already perfect and absolutely necessary.
I’m at work and can’t write a long explanation right now, but please do not move the marker/pin and also do not add a parking lot. Neither one would meet the rules for the map. I’ll explain more later.
My apologies for the delay response, a lot came up in real life.
Directions does not use the marker, but rather an invisible point called the access point. The access point normally automatically positions at the same place as the marker, but Google has the ability to move it elsewhere.
By Google’s rules for its map, the marker itself belongs in the middle of the building, or in the case of a building with multiple places in the middle of the space it occupies. If this leads to bad directions then you should report them as per the process at https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6194894 so that the access point can be moved.
With regards to parking lots, those are for actual lots rather than the parking associated with a business. The parking adjacent to a business is not to be mapped; it is part of the business.
Thanks for sharing this insight about the hidden access point pin.
If implemented, what happens to pedestrians, people on bikes, and people taking public transportation when they navigate to the place? Will they now be taken to the back ally as well?
I’ll contact support at the link you provided to see if they can change the navigation instructions so that drivers are not left hanging on a very busy street.