Routing Decisions that can go REALLY WRONG

[michravera]

My wife's driving directions app routed us from Long Beach to East Bay along I-5 to I-580 to CASR-84 to I-680 today rather than the usual I-5 to CASR-152 to US-101 to I-880. It can't have been that wrong because we did the trip in and out of the rain in just about 6 hours of engine time. I've no idea what was happening over Pacheco Pass or in Gilroy that made this routing a better decision, but that's just the inspiration for this post.

I've often commented that there is a section of US-101 in northern LA, all of Ventura, and parts of southern Santa Barbara counties where, heading for some places in the Bay Area, one has to commit to a routing decision that requires knowledge of facts that CAN'T be known at the time of the decision (such as traffic conditions in southern Santa Clara county 4 hours later).

So, my question for the forum: What are some routing decisions that can go badly?
1) Let's mostly stick to trips that will normally be completed in less than 11 hours and which are being planed close to the time of the trip (or even while the trip is in progress). In other words, a drive that a reasonable driver (or pair of drivers) would contemplate for a single day.
2) Let's give top priority to decisions requiring facts that can't easily be determined at the time that a decision must be made.
3) Let's give high priority to how bad the decision could turn out to be in terms of absolute time. One or two ill-timed traffic controls can turn a 3-minute trip into a 10-minute trip. That's a large  RELATIVE difference, but turning a three hour tour into a 4-season sitcom will be far more impressive (to me at least).
4) Let's give SOME priority to how easy it is to make the wrong decision.
5) Let's give low priority to routings that could go wrong because of unwarned and highly unusual occurrences (for example, landslides in dry weather, lava flows from a previously inactive volcano, police activity in low-crime areas, a bridge collapses by a collision, etc)

So, what's a trip like this that you take often enough to know the truth of these random factors?

[Quillz]

If you don't know the Golden Gate Bridge only charges tolls in one direction (southbound, leading into the city), this can add $7-8 to your trip that you won't know about until a couple weeks later when you get a bill in the mail. And I've noticed that most GPS will not tell you this is tolled, so if you have a direct routing through the Bay Area, it will hit you with that toll unless you purposely go out of your way to take the eastern bay freeways. But oftentimes the toll price saves you money because of the extra distance and time spent in traffic on freeways like 80 and 580.

[Rothman]

If you don't know the Golden Gate Bridge only charges tolls in one direction (southbound, leading into the city), this can add $7-8 to your trip that you won't know about until a couple weeks later when you get a bill in the mail. And I've noticed that most GPS will not tell you this is tolled, so if you have a direct routing through the Bay Area, it will hit you with that toll unless you purposely go out of your way to take the eastern bay freeways. But oftentimes the toll price saves you money because of the extra distance and time spent in traffic on freeways like 80 and 580.

Google Maps certainly does recognize the toll.  What obscure GPSes are you talking about?

[Rothman]

Speaking of Google Maps, I'm finding its preference for local streets becoming more and more annoying.  Recently, it twice tried to route me straight through the middle of Harrisburg on a quick trip I took down US 15.  Heading around on PA 581 or I-83 is just more convenient and traffic lights always are an X factor if you're prioritizing speed and time.

[michravera]

Speaking of Google Maps, I'm finding its preference for local streets becoming more and more annoying.  Recently, it twice tried to route me straight through the middle of Harrisburg on a quick trip I took down US 15.  Heading around on PA 581 or I-83 is just more convenient and traffic lights always are an X factor if you're prioritizing speed and time.

... are you sure that it isn't YOUR preference for local streets? It's an option ...

[Rothman]

Speaking of Google Maps, I'm finding its preference for local streets becoming more and more annoying.  Recently, it twice tried to route me straight through the middle of Harrisburg on a quick trip I took down US 15.  Heading around on PA 581 or I-83 is just more convenient and traffic lights always are an X factor if you're prioritizing speed and time.

... are you sure that it isn't YOUR preference for local streets? It's an option ...

Yes, I am sure.

[vdeane]

Speaking of Google Maps, I'm finding its preference for local streets becoming more and more annoying.  Recently, it twice tried to route me straight through the middle of Harrisburg on a quick trip I took down US 15.  Heading around on PA 581 or I-83 is just more convenient and traffic lights always are an X factor if you're prioritizing speed and time.

... are you sure that it isn't YOUR preference for local streets? It's an option ...

Google Maps doesn't prioritize the most convenient route or even the fastest, but rather, whatever it deems to be most fuel efficient, which often includes more local streets on a slightly longer routing or taking a convoluted route.

[Max Rockatansky]

I-5 from CA 33 near Tracy south to Old Highway in Santa Clarita has the potential to really cause chaos.  There is not much in the way of frontage roads or easy detours if there is a stoppage on route.  Getting around stuff like that requires some luck and advanced knowledge of questionable back roads. 

CA 99 and US 101 tend to not get the same level of problem due to the redundant nature of the road networks near those highways.

[Rothman]

Speaking of Google Maps, I'm finding its preference for local streets becoming more and more annoying.  Recently, it twice tried to route me straight through the middle of Harrisburg on a quick trip I took down US 15.  Heading around on PA 581 or I-83 is just more convenient and traffic lights always are an X factor if you're prioritizing speed and time.

... are you sure that it isn't YOUR preference for local streets? It's an option ...

Google Maps doesn't prioritize the most convenient route or even the fastest, but rather, whatever it deems to be most fuel efficient, which often includes more local streets on a slightly longer routing or taking a convoluted route.

You can force it to choose the fastest over most efficient in options.

[vdeane]

You can force it to choose the fastest over most efficient in options.

So only if you browse Maps when signed in, then.

[webny99]

One somewhat universal one would be the decision to exit a toll road or not when there's a traffic jam. If you get off, it's bound to be a slog to get back on. If you stay on, it's bound to be 10+ miles of stop and go traffic.

[michravera]

I-5 from CA 33 near Tracy south to Old Highway in Santa Clarita has the potential to really cause chaos.  There is not much in the way of frontage roads or easy detours if there is a stoppage on route.  Getting around stuff like that requires some luck and advanced knowledge of questionable back roads. 

CA 99 and US 101 tend to not get the same level of problem due to the redundant nature of the road networks near those highways.

Funny... I find the section between Santa Nella (CASR-33 near CASR-152 and I-5) and Magic Mountain and I-5 to be the most reliable 3:15 in the Bay-to-Basin trip. There's 100 m of Right-of-Way. Even if an overpass collapsed, you could be routed into the median or onto shoulder, even opposite-direction lanes. After the initial chaos wears off, your going 45MPH rather than 85MPH for a few miles. You probably lose more time on 68MPH-governed trucks trying to pass other trucks. Snow over Tejon Pass on the other hand? Yep, it makes US-101 a viable option.

[Max Rockatansky]

I-5 from CA 33 near Tracy south to Old Highway in Santa Clarita has the potential to really cause chaos.  There is not much in the way of frontage roads or easy detours if there is a stoppage on route.  Getting around stuff like that requires some luck and advanced knowledge of questionable back roads. 

CA 99 and US 101 tend to not get the same level of problem due to the redundant nature of the road networks near those highways.

Funny... I find the section between Santa Nella (CASR-33 near CASR-152 and I-5) and Magic Mountain and I-5 to be the most reliable 3:15 in the Bay-to-Basin trip. There's 100 m of Right-of-Way. Even if an overpass collapsed, you could be routed into the median or onto shoulder, even opposite-direction lanes. After the initial chaos wears off, your going 45MPH rather than 85MPH for a few miles. You probably lose more time on 68MPH-governed trucks trying to pass other trucks. Snow over Tejon Pass on the other hand? Yep, it makes US-101 a viable option.

Speaking for myself I've been burned a couple times on I-5 between 152 and 198.  The last time I was able to get off at where 33 split towards Mendota and zig zag around farm roads (old 33 was closed due to floodin) to get where I was going.

My thought on Tejon Pass nowadays is that the best alternative seems to be Tehachapi-Willow Springs Road and San Francisquito Canyon Road.

[jeffandnicole]

One somewhat universal one would be the decision to exit a toll road or not when there's a traffic jam. If you get off, it's bound to be a slog to get back on. If you stay on, it's bound to be 10+ miles of stop and go traffic.

I have the opposite decision.  Free highway is jammed.  Do I take the parallel toll road hoping it'll be faster?

Many years ago, the answer was yes.  Now, it's generally a no.  The highway itself may move fine, but the exit and smaller roads are themselves jammed, reducing or eliminating any benefit to using the tolled option.

[TheStranger]

If you don't know the Golden Gate Bridge only charges tolls in one direction (southbound, leading into the city), this can add $7-8 to your trip that you won't know about until a couple weeks later when you get a bill in the mail. And I've noticed that most GPS will not tell you this is tolled, so if you have a direct routing through the Bay Area, it will hit you with that toll unless you purposely go out of your way to take the eastern bay freeways. But oftentimes the toll price saves you money because of the extra distance and time spent in traffic on freeways like 80 and 580.

Interestingly, this works in a unique way in the other direction:

Going to Vacaville or Sacramento, the Golden Gate Bridge is part of the only toll-free way to get to those environs from SF!

I was with a few friends on a trip to Thunderhill Raceway Park some weeks ago, and they did the obvious routing (80-505-5-162).  Since we had left super early in the morning, 101-37-80-505-5-162 could have been done at only a 20 minute deficit to the more obvious route, and with a full toll savings.

Years before this, I sometimes had to drive from Menlo Park back to my place in Sacramento at the time (before I returned to the Bay Area full-time), and that creates a second toll-free gap:

From southern San Mateo County and from the Silicon Valley, a route to Sacramento via 84-580-205-5-4-99, while involving lots of road changes, successfully avoids the Benicia Bridge (680 en route to 80) or Antioch Bridge (160 either for the scenic drive or to cut over to 12)  tolls on the way northeastward!

[LilianaUwU]

Can't get much more wrong than dying after Google Maps (reportedly) leads someone to a missing bridge without any barriers.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/09/lawsuit-says-man-died-after-google-maps-directed-him-over-collapsed-bridge/

Google sued over fatal Google Maps error after man drove off broken bridge

Google is being sued by a widow who says her husband drowned in September 2022 after Google Maps directed him over a collapsed bridge in Hickory, North Carolina.

Google failed to correct its map service despite warnings about the broken bridge two years before the accident, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday by Alicia Paxson in Wake County Superior Court. Philip Paxson "died tragically while driving home from his daughter's ninth birthday party, when he drove off of an unmarked, unbarricaded collapsed bridge in Hickory, North Carolina while following GPS directions," the complaint said.

The Snow Creek Bridge reportedly collapsed in 2013 and wasn't repaired. Barricades were typically in place but "were removed after being vandalized and were missing at the time of Paxson's wreck," according to The Charlotte Observer. The lawsuit has five defendants, including Google and its owner Alphabet.

The other defendants are James Tarlton and two local business entities called Tarde, LLC and Hinckley Gauvain, LLC. Tarlton and the two businesses "owned, controlled, and/or were otherwise responsible for the land" containing the bridge, the lawsuit said.

"The Bridge Defendants refused to properly maintain the bridge, leaving it in a horrendously dangerous state of disrepair for years," the lawsuit said. "The Bridge Defendants refused to place reasonable and proper barricades in front of the hazard to alert drivers of the deadly drop and failed to enact inspection measures to ensure that barricades remained in front of the hazard until necessary repairs occurred."

[Rothman]

Wonder if there's been an update to that lawsuit.  Bet it was settled out of court.

[froggie]

You can force it to choose the fastest over most efficient in options.

So only if you browse Maps when signed in, then.

Works on mobile devices too.

Going back to the OP, Google's tendency to route one along the BW Pkwy instead of 95 between the DC and Baltimore beltways should qualify...

[Rothman]

You can force it to choose the fastest over most efficient in options.

So only if you browse Maps when signed in, then.

Works on mobile devices too.

Going back to the OP, Google's tendency to route one along the BW Pkwy instead of 95 between the DC and Baltimore beltways should qualify...

Eh, that's a gamble either way.

[froggie]

You can force it to choose the fastest over most efficient in options.

So only if you browse Maps when signed in, then.

Works on mobile devices too.

Going back to the OP, Google's tendency to route one along the BW Pkwy instead of 95 between the DC and Baltimore beltways should qualify...

Eh, that's a gamble either way.

My long-running experience is that 95 is the preferred option.  Sure, 4mi longer, but a higher speed limit, more lanes, and far less recurring congestion.

[oscar]

You can force it to choose the fastest over most efficient in options.

So only if you browse Maps when signed in, then.

Works on mobile devices too.

Going back to the OP, Google's tendency to route one along the BW Pkwy instead of 95 between the DC and Baltimore beltways should qualify...

Eh, that's a gamble either way.

My long-running experience is that 95 is the preferred option.  Sure, 4mi longer, but a higher speed limit, more lanes, and far less recurring congestion.

That's my preference too, for trips from northern Virginia to Baltimore and beyond, for the reasons froggie stated.

[JREwing78]

Back in the pre-2K days, there was a concert at Chicago Motor Speedway I went to with friends. I dutifully printed off directions from MapQuest and followed them to a T.

That became problematic when we were directed down 8 miles of Cicero Ave, in bumper-to-bumper traffic, to get to the speedway. We were the only white people around, and Florida Man has a rebel flag front license plate on his pickup. So he tailgated me as hard as he could until we finally got to the Speedway.

We then discovered we could've stayed on the Tri-State and gotten there much quicker.

[jdbx]

My wife's driving directions app routed us from Long Beach to East Bay along I-5 to I-580 to CASR-84 to I-680 today rather than the usual I-5 to CASR-152 to US-101 to I-880. It can't have been that wrong because we did the trip in and out of the rain in just about 6 hours of engine time. I've no idea what was happening over Pacheco Pass or in Gilroy that made this routing a better decision, but that's just the inspiration for this post.

I've often commented that there is a section of US-101 in northern LA, all of Ventura, and parts of southern Santa Barbara counties where, heading for some places in the Bay Area, one has to commit to a routing decision that requires knowledge of facts that CAN'T be known at the time of the decision (such as traffic conditions in southern Santa Clara county 4 hours later).

So, my question for the forum: What are some routing decisions that can go badly?
1) Let's mostly stick to trips that will normally be completed in less than 11 hours and which are being planed close to the time of the trip (or even while the trip is in progress). In other words, a drive that a reasonable driver (or pair of drivers) would contemplate for a single day.
2) Let's give top priority to decisions requiring facts that can't easily be determined at the time that a decision must be made.
3) Let's give high priority to how bad the decision could turn out to be in terms of absolute time. One or two ill-timed traffic controls can turn a 3-minute trip into a 10-minute trip. That's a large  RELATIVE difference, but turning a three hour tour into a 4-season sitcom will be far more impressive (to me at least).
4) Let's give SOME priority to how easy it is to make the wrong decision.
5) Let's give low priority to routings that could go wrong because of unwarned and highly unusual occurrences (for example, landslides in dry weather, lava flows from a previously inactive volcano, police activity in low-crime areas, a bridge collapses by a collision, etc)

So, what's a trip like this that you take often enough to know the truth of these random factors?

I have one of these.  We live up in the Bay Area, and sometimes we take a road trip down to San Diego.  There is always a point of decision as we approach Newhall Pass over whether we go directly through the LA Basin, or bypass it via I-210 -> CA-71 -> I-15.  If we decide to go through the LA basin, the next decision is whether to remain on I-5 or to use I-405 around the west side.  Each of the above routes, absent traffic, has a travel time that is within 15-20 minutes of another on what is typically a 7.5-8 hour drive. Choose wrong, and you are locked-into a decision that could literally add HOURS to your overall travel time.  Usually I make the choice based on time-of-day and past experiences, but all it takes is an overturned big rig and all bets are off.

[Rothman]

You can force it to choose the fastest over most efficient in options.

So only if you browse Maps when signed in, then.

Works on mobile devices too.

Going back to the OP, Google's tendency to route one along the BW Pkwy instead of 95 between the DC and Baltimore beltways should qualify...

Eh, that's a gamble either way.

My long-running experience is that 95 is the preferred option.  Sure, 4mi longer, but a higher speed limit, more lanes, and far less recurring congestion.

That's my preference too, for trips from northern Virginia to Baltimore and beyond, for the reasons froggie stated.

Makes me wonder how good Google Maps' time estimator is, then.

[LilianaUwU]

Wonder if there's been an update to that lawsuit.  Bet it was settled out of court.

Sounds about right. The trillion dollar companies can't be responsible for gross negligence, after all!