User:Kartografer/Far lanes

The following section applies to both far lanes in junction boxes (known as far lanes phase 1, FL1), and in paths (known as far lanes phase 2, FL2). Although junction boxes and paths have some differences, far lanes work identically whether in a path or junction box connection.

Far lanes can be added by rank 4 and higher editors.

Simple lane guidance works well for in many places, but not all of them. Far lanes were developed in order to provide editors greater control over unusual and complex lane situations. There are two different ways that far lanes can be displayed.

Combined

Similar to the heuristics used to combine the lane guidance for separate turns through H and # intersections, far lanes can be used to ensure that a complete lane picture is shown at every turn through an intersection. This is especially useful where an intersection has at-grade connectors, or its geometry is skewed too much from perpendicular to meet the requirements for lane-combination heuristics to work.

Preferred

Preferred lanes show drivers that they should use a particular lane or lane(s) that are a subset of the lanes involved in a turn. For example, there may be two lanes that turn left at an intersection, and then the two lanes split immediately in two different directions. Drivers should be given just one of the two lanes corresponding to which direction their route goes after the left turn movements. The far lanes are shown at the first node

50-meter rule

All far lanes are shown at the first node in a path or junction box connection, unless all criteria are met for them to be pushed to the next turn. These are:

• No turn instruction may be given at the first node.
• The distance to first turn that has an instruction must be less than 50 meters (164 feet).
• No lane guidance may be present on the segment immediately before the instruction.

This is a generalization of the behavior of the heuristic lanes behavior for H and # junctions, but with less restrictions (no turn angle requirements) and better control by editors. If far lanes are pushed, any visual turn instruction, TTS or voice prompt set on the far turn is also pushed to the location of the next turn.

If the criteria for the 50-meter rule are not met, and there is no full turn instruction on the first node of the junction box or path connection, the far lane(s) will be displayed at the first node with a continue straight text under them, just like "view only" straight lanes.

Guidance

there are 2 different paradigms in any case, but they can be used together. (1) preferred lanes https://waze.com/en-US/editor?env=usa&lat=29.99793&lon=-90.14830&zoomLevel=18&segments=506996429 (2) single intersection https://waze.com/en-US/editor?env=usa&lat=29.99455&lon=-90.19263&zoomLevel=20&segments=20941991 (1+2) single intersection with preferred lanes https://waze.com/en-US/editor?env=usa&lat=30.00280&lon=-90.15557&zoomLevel=19&segments=78736418 the caveat under #2 is the >50m problem the "when to" for #2 is a simpler question (or would be if it weren't for the >50m problem), the question simply revolves around what constitutes a "single intersection" the edge cases around that will be things like this... is the u turn part of the "intersection"? (2 examples in here, either direction, same issue) [Image] but the basic cases are # or H intersections, intersections with AGC, and combinations of the two

for #1 preferred lanes, the easy cases are easy. any multi-lane movement where you're already getting an instruction and where the best lane to choose at the movement depends on which movement you're going to make next any time you have 2 or more lanes going the same turn, exit, or keep, you should be thinking about preferred lanes (not always doing them, sometimes there won't be any applicable later movements which are close enough. and what constitutes "close enough" is an issue, i think a fixed distance is not the answer except maybe on freeways. i think a good yardstick is "within about the next minute" for whether a later movement is close enough. this means about 1 mile on a 60-mph freeway, much shorter at surface speeds, etc., and leave it somewhat up to best judgment) (you can make the yardstick time-based but then offer helpful tips like "that's about 1 mile at freeway speeds")

but the more interesting questions around #1 preferred lanes are about how you use them in places where you wouldn't have otherwise received an instruction. for example, one i think of as "not that right lane!" if you have 2 freeway exits on the same side about a mile or less apart, and the first one has an exit-only lane of any kind, then a view only straight at the first exit for the second exit's lane(s) can be very helpful and if the second exit is multi-lane, you can even use that view-only to direct people into the correct lane for the 2nd exit this example has both - https://waze.com/en-US/editor?env=usa&lat=29.99653&lon=-90.14143&zoomLevel=17&segments=506996365 so what the view only is saying/doing is not only showing the correct lane for the 2nd exit as of the 1st exit, but also suppressing the "use the right lane to" part of the TTS instruction for the 2nd exit until you actually pass the 1st exit you can also do that stuff at the street scale... this example looks a little overboard but why not? https://waze.com/en-US/editor?env=usa&lat=29.96065&lon=-90.18111&zoomLevel=17&segments=20938270 if you have a series of hard to predict turn-only lanes then drivers can use the help

Further resources

• Waze staff how-to document for phase 1 far lanes (junction boxes)
• Waze staff how-to document for phase 2 far lanes (paths)
• Waze staff (Gil) office hours presentation on JB far lanes
• Waze staff (Gil) office hours presentation on path far lanes
• WME far lanes recorded demo by whoaitspete (US Champ)