Dear @JanVanHaver
This post should be dedicated to you and to other fellow road champions who have inspired me and helped me get this far on drawing roads. Jan started me on this road drawing adventure and addiction if you don’t mind me saying it that way. I was only trying to get rid of a Zero for roads added and in the process I earned about 4 more zeros added 
. You will be happy to know that I now have 10,000 approved roads on Google maps sitting comfortably on my profile. Do you remember the day I got My first roads approved? It was on the 25th of April 2021. I was super excited really,thank you for your inspiration and that post. A year after the New Road editor on desktop tool was rolled out to us as local guides I had Post-Guiding-star-achievement-1,000 approved–Roads- to show. This tool was first announced in 2021 at the 2021 guiding stars events Unfortunately I relented and got distracted by other local guides activities which was also OK !
Never mind that because I soon got up and going again. Consistency,dedication and hardwork are key qualities to have on this adventure.On the 30th of January 2023 I got 2000- Approved-Roads on Google Maps.That was earlier this year. Now,that therefore goes to say that in 11 months of activities I had gotten 8,000 approved Roads on Google maps. This wasn’t achieved as easy as you think and as fluently as I have typed them here. It took time dedication hunting taking some details into account etc. Nevertheless it has been a very interesting adventure to get on. I have met very interesting and dedicated local guides. In that process we formed our yearly event TRAC We have also formed the most dedicated and loyal team of local guides-My highly esteemed TRAC members.
- Do you know about hunting for roads to be drawn on Google maps? Spending time searching through countries and continents just to improve the maps @MarcoDavoli anything to tell us on hunting for roads.
- Do you know anything about the ooops error? That’s after adding so many hundreds of roads. It’s quiet annoying for those who have faced it. @ErmesT has loads of experience in that area.
- Do you know anything about delay in approval,low approvals or even rejections after 3 months of drawing a road on Google maps? That gets you as well after spending time to draw these roads.
- There is a new development also new dotted lines to show a pending road edit. That’s quite interesting really.
Highlight.
The highest number of single approval E-mails I have gotten since I started my career on adding roads is 281. Please note also it was a case of about 60% rate of approval. I added 500+ that day.
My first 1,000 roads and 2,000 roads were exciting. Then 10,000 roads.
There’re many more interesting stories we could share about drawing roads but we want to keep this post reasonable and short. One thing about drawing roads is that,it’s quite addictive. We also remind local guides that it’s good to draw the roads properly following the rules and making sure it’s correct. It’s a very unpopular task among local guides and on connect. TRAC has been trying to create awareness on drawing roads. We haven’t gotten too far but we are well on anyway. The last thing I’ll state about drawing roads is that,it’s very important that the roads are drawn correctly following the rules and tips on drawing road @Lukas_1 the top man on roads can tell us alot about that. There are other upcoming local guides on roads as well like @Berete1 .
My tips on drawing roads
- I spend a minimun of at least an hour everyday hunting in different countries especially the North of Nigeria. Lots of roads in the south of Africa too. I enjoyed a particular country side in Namibia till all the roads were done. 1hour a day(5hrs in a week excluding Sat and Sun for me)
- An hour hunting and drawing on a Desktop generally gives me 80-100 roads to be submitted for approval. Sometimes it goes well other times it goes otherwise
- I often make sure the roads are connected to old or existing ones. I have never tried new unconnected roads. In the past it hasn’t given me much success rate.
- I keep the road to a very reasonable length as long and complicated roads often get delay or rejected.
- Am careful when correcting a wrong shape of road. Adjustment in one area could distorts other areas.
- Ask for advise from other colleagues(Usually on our group) that goes along way to help draw accurate roads.
- Remember that approval rate varies and is quite unstable. I think that depends largely on the AI.
- Make sure to keep adding and don’t wait for a huge number of approval before drawing more. Go-ahead if it it doesn’t come.
- Make sure to draw good proper accurate roads as much as you can.Otherwise you are only adding more damages or hardwork for other professional road mappers.
- Lastly share your achievements with us and others,it might inspire another local guide.
Anyway this is just to share my excitement and interesting achievements with you all on connect.
Recommended texts on adding roads.
- Draw-Roads-on-desktop-step-by-step-Photos
- How-to-add-Roads-on-Google-Maps-via-Android-Mobile
- My-tips-for-adding-roads-in-Google-Maps.
- Official help page on adding roads on Google maps.
- How-to-get-rid-of-that-annoying-0-for-Roads-added.
Happy guiding
Happy mapping
Cheers
N.B Road drawing can be addictive and exhausting please be careful. The time frame amd suggestions mentioned here are only my personal tips not official from Google or any entity. Please note also that I do get busy and distracted from drawing roads too and that’s normal and human.
Cheers
