Basic Routing Errors
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Over the last week I drove around 250 miles per day using pre-planned routes. On each day the same issue occurred - about halfway through the journey the app suddenly starting giving some very strange routing directions.
It would take every opportunity to route me away from the pre-planned route, and then back to it again. It would direct me down every available side road, and then request a U-turn to bring me back to the original route again.
Very frustrating - very annoying and made the app completely useless. I tried resetting the app - no difference. I tried power cycling my phone - no difference.
An example screenshot :
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@AlastairA Sounds like you /the app maybe missed a waypoint and kept sending you back to it. Can you share the route you used?
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or the waypoints were not exactly placed on the road and MRA selected the nearest roads leadign to this beahviour;
when makign a route you always have to zoom in on your waypoints to see if they are exactly on the road.
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@Herko-ter-Horst For sure - what is the best way for me to share the route?
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@AlastairA If you set the route to "public" in MRA Routeplanner you can then copy/paste the link here on the forum.
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@Herko-ter-Horst Thanks!
Here is the link -
@AlastairA The screenshot that I posted above is very near Waypoint 10.
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as I expected, waypoint 10 is not on the road
and waypoint 8 isn't either (i did not check the other points)
this forces the navigation tool to search for a point as close as possible to the waypoint, and that is not necessarily the most efficient road.
if you zoom in on point 9
you see clearly that it is not on the road and the nav tool sends you in that small road towards point 9 and then back
solution: as last step in the route making process, zoom in on every waypoint you have placed and put it precisely on the road.
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@Drabslab OK - thanks. Every day is a school day!!
However - rather than rely on extremely accurate positioning of the waypoint, would it not be better to put a dialog box up on the app when driving, that alerts the driver to a missed waypoint and asks whether you want to skip it, or return to it?
I did encounter a similar issue before when placing a waypoint on a motorway but it was on the South side rather than the North side. This had the same effect of continually trying to route me in the opposite direction. Surely users cannot be expected to position waypoints to the precision of the correct side of the road??
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@AlastairA Like dragslab Said it is very important to check all of the waypoint before using your route. That is of you want it to be a nice ride. Otherwise you get the effects that you encountered during your trips.
Placing the way points on the wrong side of a hiway leads your trip in the wrong direction.
So max zoom in on waypoint 1 and check all of the waypoints.
Have a nice ride -
@AlastairA said in Basic Routing Errors:
@Drabslab OK - thanks. Every day is a school day!!
However - rather than rely on extremely accurate positioning of the waypoint, would it not be better to put a dialog box up on the app when driving, that alerts the driver to a missed waypoint and asks whether you want to skip it, or return to it?
No, because the navigation tool cannot guestimate where you want to go, or which points are wrongly placed.
For instance, point 9 could have been the home of the "love of your life" and then you certainly don't want the nav tool to suggest skipping it
I did encounter a similar issue before when placing a waypoint on a motorway but it was on the South side rather than the North side. This had the same effect of continually trying to route me in the opposite direction.
sounds very familiar. This joke once cost me half a day in France.
Surely users cannot be expected to position waypoints to the precision of the correct side of the road??
OK, the routeplanner could be improved in this aspect. Point 10 close to the road without any other roads nearby could be solved by an automated algorithm.
But your point 9 again is a good example where this will not help. Any algoritm would put your point 9 exactly on the small side road and not on the main one where you want it to be.
and when your route is completely finished, placing the waypoints exactly on the road is not such a big deal and takes less time than what you would imagine.
click on a waypoint, click zoom, position the point, and move to the next waypoint. the routeplanner could be somewhat improved to make it faster but it works
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@AlastairA If you use the magnifying glass to fully zoom in, make any adjustments and move to the next route point by using the right arrow, you can very quickly check the entire route. This is especially important if your route contains duel carriageways. If you do move a route point to position it's accuracy you will need to re-type any name that you have given it.
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It's worth re-iterating the difference between the two types of 'waypoint' - also known as route points (thanks Nick!):
- 'shaping' point (an inverted raindrop):
- 'via' point (a hand):
The routing logic forces the route to pass through 'via' points (how close is not clear to me - answers on a postcard please). If you miss it, it will continue to route you back to it regardless of how round-about the route becomes.
Two solutions:
- As the other commenters say you need to move the tip of the 'via' point onto the black track, or
- Swap it back to a 'shaping' point, then you can pass nearby, not exactly through it, and the routing will behave as you expected
- 'shaping' point (an inverted raindrop):
