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NYC Asks Google Maps For Fewer Left Turns
An anonymous reader writes: Members of the New York City Council have sent a letter to Google asking that its Maps navigation system provide users an option to "reduce left turns." Pedestrian safety is the issue they're trying to improve. In the U.S., a quarter of all accidents involving pedestrians happen while a vehicle is making a left turn. "The first cause of death for New York City children under 13 is not gangs, it's not poverty, not violence. It's being hit by cars and trucks. This is the time for the city to reach out to the private sector, so they can help us to provide information to drivers about where you should avoid making left turns." The council members are also asking for an option that would let truckers stay on known truck routes, hoping that would prevent the problems that arise when big-rigs wander onto streets not large enough to safely accommodate them.
they could just put up "no left turn" signs
It takes money to order and install such signs. Then those requirements impede profit later on, as well. That plan won't fly. Instead they spent a few days' worth of city council time writing a letter to ask someone else to provide an optional work-around.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Making a request like this seems very reasonable and hopefully Google will be able to improve their service in this regard.
Sometimes a left turn is necessary. Having Google maps put a higher cost in the algorithm for left turns, the system can then determine better if a left turn should be made or three rights. It isn't about eliminating them entirely (as it isn't practical to do so), it is about reducing.
Apparently it also reduces fuel consumption and saves time
http://compass.ups.com/UPS-dri...
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Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
Truckers shouldn't use google maps anyway - they don't provide legal truck routes. There are other applications out there like ALK PC Miler that provides truck routes based on verified truck routes, height and weight limits, etc.
I'm not sure that Google wants to get into that game, at least not providing a free product.
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
There are certain roads I prefer to take and others I prefer to avoid, certain maneuvers I prefer to make and others I dislike. Example: especially if I'm navigating someplace unfamiliar, I'd much rather take the "least complicated" route that involves the fewest turns, especially if the time saving is less than 15 minutes.
Google Maps tracks this, both if I'm putting together the route on the computer (for printing out and taking with me) or if I'm actually navigating. And yet its suggested directions never change. It seems like there'd be MORE than enough data accumulated in a relatively small number of drives for GMaps (or Waze, is after all owned by Google, or whatever) to notice "Ah, this person hates taking non-protected left turns," or, "this person will not take the beltway for any more than a half-hour's time savings," and to adjust the directions it gives accordingly. They personalize search results. Why not directions?
The request for right turn optimized routes seems reasonable, but the truck route seems stupid to me. If you're operating a large truck you should be using truck optimized commercial software, not freaking Google Maps. There are all sorts of things like bridge height, earlier lane alignment alerts (it takes a LOT longer to get an opening big enough for a big rig), hazmat restrictions, etc that the commercial packages take into account that google maps is unlikely to ever add so giving a truck route option seems like it would give drivers a false sense that google maps is an acceptable alternative to what they should really be using.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
As a motorcyclist, I avoid left turns like the plague.
Not for safety reasons, but because I don't want to sit there for 15 minutes waiting for a car that weighs enough to pull up behind me to trigger the lights to turn green.
We waste so much of our lives waiting at red lights its baffling!
</semi-tangent>
Switch to driving on the left.
NYC should just ask Google to track children in real-time and let drivers know when one is nearby. And especially flag the ones who aren't being watched by an adult; they're way more likely to play in traffic.
Pervasive surveillance... it's for the children!
Log in or piss off.
1/4th of accidents occur when going in 1 of 4 directions.... imagine that :)
I fail to see how anyone could construe offering an additional option, rather than constraining people to that option, is acting like a nanny state. Most especially since it's simply a friendly request, not a law, so it's up to google to decide if the feature offers value to their customers or not.
Heck, I'd expect the right wing to be all over this as an example of how private companies and government can work together for mutual advancement.
BTW, did you notice this story is literally NYC asking Google Maps to have a leftward bias?
No, but I did notice the exact opposite of that.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
In Germany to go left, you take the *Third Right*
What happened to parents teaching their kids basic safety, and the old adage about "Looking both ways before crossing the street"?
Seriously...do parents not teach kids the basic things about life? Don't talk to strangers, look both ways, cross street at intersections, etc.
I guess I'm just puzzled why what used to be common sense has suddenly gone straight out the fucking window?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Of course, that's not the fundamental issue... which is:
The turning driver has a green light right when pedestrians have the walk light
When your city can reasonably be ranked as the top pedestrian city in the world, it might behoove you to plan accordingly by not putting your pedestrians directly into oncoming traffic.
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.