Many of us, while drawing roads in Road Mapper, often wonder whether we should continue drawing the road when it is covered by a tree’s shadow.
Recently, on 3 December 2025, I decided to continue drawing a road even though it was covered by a tree’s shadow. I am happy to share that the road was successfully approved.
This experience may help other Local Guides who are unsure about mapping roads hidden by tree shadows. Please feel free to share your experience in the comments below.
Important: This type of road drawing may not get approval when submitted in Google Maps.
Caption: In Image-1, the road segment drawn under the tree shadow is marked with a red circle. The points marked A and B represent the starting and ending points of the road under the tree’s shadow. Image-2 clearly shows the same road after it was approved.
@PrasadVR@MortenCopenhagen I ALWAYS draw complete roads right through tree shadows in Road Mapper. I NEVER continue roads beyond a tree shadow in Google Maps road editor, since being guided about this in another thread many months ago.
These tree shaded roads have not diminished my extremely high approval rate in Road Mapper. Following the guidance to avoid tree shadows in Google Maps road editor did not improve my poor success rate on that platform.
I also try not to omit roads under trees in Road Mapper, but I only draw them when I am 100 percent sure about the correct course (shape) of the road - applying the principle that it is better to omit something than to add something that does not reflect reality.
Looking at the photo on the left, I congratulate you on your perceptiveness. Most people would think that there is nothing there, but you have successfully added the missing section of the road.
While the road isn’t clear in the above image (screenshot), you can see it under the tree shadow by zooming in completely on the desktop map. Thank you for sharing your experience, @new.user .
Important: This type of road drawing may not get approval when submitted in Google Maps.
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