Road Review Feature

[Magbagbeola]

Good day!

Let me start by saying I was excited about the latest updates on the Google map especially with the "Maps is in Picture-in-Picture" feature which allows the Google map to remain on screen while navigating irrespective of what you are doing on the phone.

I must commend this great feature as it saves a lot of time to get other things done while eyes is still on the map.

But let me share my experience last week Friday (20/07/2018 - 23:20), I was going to a street (Asunny Adewole) at Ejigbo using the Googlemap. On getting to a street that links the Asunny Adewole it was bad (untarred) with flood all over and after scaling through about 3 floods on the street I had to reverse and ask for another route which the security guard gave me, though longer (I had to go round and round). I now come to discover that the initial flooded route given by the map had no linkage because the drainage wasn't covered and as such vechiles cannot pass through. I would have love to show pictures but it was late midnight and wouldn't get high definition picture.

I will like to suggest that roads should have reviews or something related because so many factors changed the route daily - road construction, diversion, accident that leads to road condons, road rehabilitation, floods, emergency and the likes.

As a local guide and a Passionate Traffic Officer in a very busy place like Lagos, Nigeria, road information should be given high priority on the Google map also. 

Thanks

[ErmesT]

Hi @Magbagbeola

Thank you for your general feedback, but also for your proposal, that is interesting and very close to my personal thoughts. I am moving a step ahead, proposing an improvement for "mapping in emergency areas" (link is here below), for emergency situation, like the flood that you were experiencing, creating a specific layer for emergency only.

Feel free to comment, I would like to read your opinion

Ermes

[MrLabule]

This is a great one! I'll love to see something like this too

[Magbagbeola]

Thanks @ErmesT for your encouraging and understanding reply. 

But I'll like you to know that the flood I mean here is due to bad or untarred road which allows some parts or major parts of the road to be water logged. 

[ErmesT]

Oh, now I've got it @Magbagbeola.

Well, this is a bit more difficult for Local Guides. I mean, I would not give to everyone the power of opening / closing road in a few minutes. But I would be happy to give this power to local authority

[Magbagbeola]

Well,  you are perfectly right. Giving the power of opening and closing road to local guide is not visible. 

But writing a review about a particular road that was used by other commuters might lead a new commuter to the right path. 

Just take for example, the street I mentioned in my earlier post, it might be suggested to someone else by Google Map not knowing that it has an open drainage that no vehicle can pass through at all. 

I hope you understand me now.

Thanks 

[OkekeNkiruka]

Nice idea,will love to share mine too

[JanVanHaver]

Having a layer for local authorities to make those kind of edits would indeed be great (they can then add the waste recycling points too 😉), @ErmesT, similar to the transportation layer.

But for these specific cases, a near real-time editing of information would be needed (there no use in having the fact that a road is closed due to flooding pending for 3 months, or have the road listed as closed when it is open again). Do you have any knowledge about the way this is happening for transportation? How long does it take for a suggested edit there to be processed into the map? And can those also take up to 24 hours before being visible on the map?

[GoranAdelsberger]

Very good idea! Thanks

[ErmesT]

That's exactly the reason of my suggestion @JanVanHaver, creating a layer, managed by local authorities (100 trusted level) for a real time update. This is already activated in the "traffic" layer (I believe) as I frequently receive information related to car accident on my road when driving. This helped me a lot in several long trip, saving hours of driving.

I never investigate in deep about Transit layer, but I am expecting a real time update also in there