Major A Roads in Google Maps

[astondb9]

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but in the last few months Google Maps has begun showing some major A roads slightly different to more minor ones, making the UK road network look a little less sparse when zoomed out.

You'll need good eyes, but if you zoom to show most of England/Scotland in map view you can see certain roads are now very slightly bolder and darker orange than others, if you zoom in they disappear again though.

I'm not sure what the criteria is as some of these aren't dualled, and they don't show all trunk roads, but hopefully you guys can suggest other roads which could do with the same treatment.

The roads i've found are:
A1 (all non-motorway sections)
A12
A14 (M6 to Cambridge, but not further east)
A120
A34 (between M3 and M40)
A453 (between M1 and Nottingham)
A48 and A40 in Wales
A50
A55
A628
A64
A68
A75
A9

[DB617]

Good spotting! It's not perfect, though, as the zoomed out version of their (stupidly useful) traffic feature doesn't yet include those roads; it's still limited to motorways. Out of the areas I'm familiar with, the A42, A38 Devon Expressway and South Cornwall road, and the A30 through the south west are conspicuously missing.

[NICK 647063]

Yes this has been like this for a year or so if you put live traffic on and zoom in and out you will notice the major A roads you mention show live traffic when zoomed further out than the other A roads, that’s the only way I noticed then as you say on closer inspection they are more noticeable when zoomed out.

[NICK 647063]

Good spotting! It's not perfect, though, as the zoomed out version of their (stupidly useful) traffic feature doesn't yet include those roads; it's still limited to motorways. Out of the areas I'm familiar with, the A42, A38 Devon Expressway and South Cornwall road, and the A30 through the south west are conspicuously missing.

They do work in traffic but not like the motorways when zoomed right out but if you zoom in slightly you will notice these A roads show traffic before the normal A roads, not sure what the system is for selecting these roads, I’m surprised the A168/A19 and A66 are not on it.

The google maps live traffic is absolutely brilliant though it is always spot on unlike the Highways England traffic map which seems to show congestion everywhere.

[DB617]

The google maps live traffic is absolutely brilliant though it is always spot on unlike the Highways England traffic map which seems to show congestion everywhere.

It's really clever in the way it works; most people would hate it if they knew this but it basically just takes location samples of all phone users with Maps enabled, regularly, when they're on the road. It does have flaws because it often shows closed sections as still 'green' because road workers or emergency workers are carrying their phones up and down the sections. They also get closures and incident locations wrong quite often, but considering it's an automated system using many sources, it's brilliant. We've come a really long way from having the 'Traffic alerts' system on our FM radios.

[Johnathan404]

It's a shame that the way Google renders its maps makes them impossible to use for journey planning.

[DB617]

How do you mean?

[Johnathan404]

How do you mean?

I mean that I find that Google Maps frequently renders suburban areas like this (as experienced on several different devices), which I find it difficult to navigate with:

[DB617]

How do you mean?

I mean that I find that Google Maps frequently renders suburban areas like this (as experienced on several different devices), which I find it difficult to navigate with:Untitled.png

Oh, I see. That's weird - mine renders with more contrast, with built up area ground being grey and the roads white with black outline. Are there any appearance settings like on a Sat Nav?