Recently I’ve noticed that by default online maps will almost always choose a longer highway route, even when the time savings is just one or two minutes vs a more direct route on arterial streets. On a recent trip to a friend’s house who lives near 8th Ave NW and Holman Rd in Greenwood, Google Maps would not even show me an arterial route option unless I checked the “avoid highways” option. At peak commute times, I-5 and its approaches such as Mercer St are heavily congested, while alternate north-south routes like Westlake Ave N and 8th Ave NW move freely. I wonder how many people used an online map to plan their first commute, and continue to use I-5 based on its theoretical time advantage.
Aye. Most GPSs have this same problem.
Are there any studies on how much congestion could be reduced just by more efficient routing?
Usually the “cut through” route ends up being longer. If more people are steered that direction it gets even worse. Your “secret route” really isn’t so secret. Increased backups on local roads of people trying to get to the highway isn’t going to reduce congestion.
Bernie, my point is that people don’t need to use the highway at all, at least when traveling just a few miles. These aren’t neighborhood streets, they’re arterial roads parallel to the highway.
I-5 has no capacity during rush hour, but 8th Ave NW and other parallel roads do. If your destination is west of I-5 it’s actually a shorter distance as well. During off-peak I don’t doubt that you could save 2 mins as Google estimates but it’s certainly not true at 5pm.