Apple maps routing & the law

We don’t know the full extent of the live data inputs like congestion reports, but it seems reasonable to speculate that routing on major streets with congestion monitoring might be prioritized over unmonitored residential streets. These would also be the preferred route to be practical for use by any vehicle type, where the type is generally unknown in a consumer grade satnav.

It‘s not always a matter of law which influences routing, with the obvious exceptions like one-way and posted restrictions on certain types of vehicle. In fact local and community restrictions would be costly to implement and maintain in satnav, particularly in places like USA where there are at least 3 levels of lawmakers (federal, state, city) and a lot of small communites which would be a one horse town if they could find the horse. In other words the task would be almost impossible even just for USA without all the other countries covered.

The most difficult part is getting real-time traffic information. It may not be available on "surface streets" in which case it could be overly optimistic. I have literally been on surface streets after an even where I barely moved for an hour.

Be careful what you wish for. A lot of makers of navigation aids are dealing with angry residents where heavy traffic is going through their neighborhoods because they're being routed by navigation apps or stand-alone GPS. It's gotten so bad that many municipalities have closed off such streets, except to residents.

Navigation Apps Are Turning Quiet Neighborhoods Into Traffic Nightmares - The New York Times

theguelahpapyrus wrote:

But these are public streets, so where do you draw the line?”

It's kind of difficult. I live near San Francisco, and there is that section of Lombard Street that tourists keep on visiting. The residents get somewhat upset and there have been pilot programs where it's been closed to non-residential traffic.

I suppose they can always use traffic calming techniques such as circles or bumps, but that doesn't really help except to slow down vehicles on a relatively clear street. When drivers are using side streets to get around even worse traffic, hitting a speed bump doesn't matter much when it's still a crawl.

Frankly I very much doubt there are laws dealing with matters like this. Why not ask your local parliamentary representative?