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road closure and/or surface correction - observations and suggestions/updates

K-Napp
2 months ago

I recently took a family vacation for a long weekend to a new area. I brought along my bike to explore some roads. I had made 4 routes with the automatic route planning in Garmin Connect, one going in each cardinal direction (North/South/East/West) and all for about 30+ miles. I usually make my own courses at home as I know the areas I ride or I will find a course that is public and utilize that but this area I was in was more limited in what was available and I definitely didn't know it.

Several observations:

*The auto route feature is convenient and easy. I selected paved surface, road riding, distance, and direction et viola I have a route to ride!

*I was able to ride 3 of the 4 routes that were created and found these issues:
1. There was a 1.5 mile strip of 4 season dirt road that I went down a couple times
2. There was a complete road near the 1.5 mile strip of road noted above that was completely dirt - again a 4 season road and both are listed as paved in Garmin - there must be a way to submit a change to surface type within Garmin outside of the fact you can mark the spot as a blanket HAZARD that doesn't necessarily help future riders on that road
3. On 2 of the 3 routes I was on there was construction (bridge completely out and road closed) in which I had to reroute myself. The reroute function would constantly try to bring me back to the planned course until I was almost self routed back to it all on my own and ignoring its constant beeping - there should be an option like the hazard to note a road closure so that future routes are not planned through that area AND the reroute feature doesn't try to bring you through the same closed section.

*One of the routes had a climb pro section that it should have turned mid climb to a side street but it had you finish the climb then take a U-Turn to go halfway down the climb and turn off to the next road

*Overall I was generally happy with the auto generated routes and the climb pro sections within it. The above observations do not make the auto generated routes a deal breaker for me but it does open up some areas of improvement in the logic or just adding options for future riders/routes to help with their experiences after mine. I feel like this could help make the program better, keep riders more accountable/safe, and lead to less frustration mid-ride. 

  • 0 2 months ago

    To change errors in Maps, you could do it yourself. Create an open street maps account and do it there. It takes about 1.5 years for Garmin to implement such updates from OSM. 

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to BeneGi

    The main problem is the unknown while you are riding and you encounter an error. Yes, after the ride is over you can make a correction for yourself but it doesn't have the same helping effect to others in the Garmin ecosystem. 

    It does appear to take Garmin longer than desired to implement things but I hope this can at least get the ball rolling. I searched the forum and there are people from over a year ago with some similar issues so maybe this can boost or bolster the effort. Furthermore, with the ability we have now to mark on our Edge units an issue in the road it shouldn't be that hard to add a road closure piece to that which can help other Garmin people as well as guide the rerouting side of it. 

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to K-Napp

    This just isn’t going to work. Road closures in general are temporary. Who / how will these ever get removed?  If people relying on them for routes are not taken down them, they can’t clear them. People who don’t, probably don’t even see them as closed.  So all you end up with is inaccurate data.  No way can Garmin globally check the status of road closures, so,it can’t be down to them. 

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to iheathcock

    I agree it may be a bit clunky to try and incorporate a check on closures. That said, the system that is newer and already in place for hazards can be utilized as well for closures. Maybe if it is confirmed by multiple riders or dismissed as well by others then the "closure" or "hazard" can be removed from that section of road. This is done with google driving maps as well as waze and others. It is more user involved than the corporate entity involved. All garmin would have to do is to build into their system a way to report a closure (in my opinion just like someone would report a hazard that they can do at any instant along a ride) and other riders that come to this section of road will get that notification in which they can acknowledge that it is still there or decline that there is a problem. 

    Furthermore, if they can tweak their re-routing to avoid a road (whether its because of the listed hazard or not) then the rider isn't going to be told to take a U-turn and bring them back to the same spot 100 times until the rider routes themselves back to the course. 

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to K-Napp

    The challenge is a hazard is one thing. It doesn’t generally mean the road is closed. A road closure would mean Garmin would need to avoid and reroute around it. Relying a people riding through it and clearing it and any other hazards is going to get a bit annoying to those using the system. They’ll just end up with message after message on a small screen.  Quite a bit more annoying than coming up in a car with many more users to clear a hazard or closure. 

    it’s a nice idea but again I think completely impractical for Garmin to incorporate into something effective on a global scale. 

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to iheathcock

    I do agree that implementation could be a challenge but "HAZARD" and "WARNING" already pops up on the screen for users with the 1050 and xx40 beta Edge units during a ride. Having it say "CLOSED" would be a simple add to me. What they do after that would be the challenge.

    At that point if it could be verified and or added to your route that would be neat. Furthermore, if it is added or verified then an automatic reroute around that section back to the course would be ideal. But again that would be the challenging part and maybe could be featured further down the road after simply just adding the popup of "CLOSED." 

    As an aside it would also be nice to have a report of road surface back to Garmin for them to update as in the OP there was a complete road and a section of road that was dirt but the routes were marked as 100% paved. 

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to K-Napp

    Totally agree on the paved issue. Garmin routing once took me what is best described as a farm track. Half way along the mud was so bad my wheels were clogging up in the frame.  Crazy thing was it was two sides of a square and the other two sides were a perfectly good road. Garmin routing is notorious for this and has been for a while. I will often use google street view to double check. I’ve been caught out too many times now.