You can now get directions to and from your favorite locations in Map Maker. You'll notice that this looks like a simpler version of the directions feature on maps.google.com. However, there's one distinct feature -- at every turn displayed in the directions, you can edit 'turn restrictions'. Turn restrictions allow you to indicate if the turn from one road on to another (or a U-turn) is allowed or not. As you can imagine, this is crucial information when creating driving directions.

How To Improve Directions

The first step is simple: use the Get Directions boxes to get directions between two places, just like you would using maps.google.com. If the directions look good, that's great. If the directions are not quite accurate, you can use Map Maker to correct them.

Here are some issues you might notice in your driving directions, and how you can correct them:

Directions have a turn that is not allowed

Click on the Turn restrictions link in the info window, or on the left hand panel.

By default, the turns that are allowed for the road marked 'A' are indicated with green directions icons.


Directions are not showing road names:
This happens when the road itself is not named. To fix this, name the road or add landmarks to help users visually:

• If you know the name of the road, zoom into that road, right click on the road icon, then select the road to be named and edit it. Add the name at the top of the info-window that pops up and click save.
• If you don't know the road name, or its not a well-known name, see if you can find a good landmark near the intersection of the turn and add that place (use the toolbar at the top-left of the map). If the landmark is really popular, select the appropriate 'popularity' in the 'attributes' tab of the detailed edit view.

Directions is going through local roads rather than use the major roads:
There could be several reasons for this. Look carefully at the sections of the major roads that directions should have used and verify / edit the following to fix this issue:

• Do the major roads have the right priority? You can tell the priority visually by looking at the color of the road, but you should verify sections of the road that the directions seem to be skipping. Note: Do not change priority of local roads to arterials (main roads) just because it's the path you prefer.
• Do the major road sections have the right speeds? If someone has mistakenly reduced the maximum or average speed on these sections, please fix this. To do so, right click on that section of the road and click find near, select the road section and use 'more info' to examine the speeds. If the speeds are incorrect, please edit and fix them
  
• Other attributes: Also examine and cleanup other attributes of the major roads like 'surface', 'number of lanes', 'construction' and 'road condition.' These will influence whether this road is used in directions or not.
• Are the two sections of road where a turn should take place well connected? To check, zoom in and look closely. Then, right click and click find to locate the intersection at which the turn should take place and verify that the intersection is connected to the appropriate roads. If not, please reconnect them. The best way to do this is to remove the segment that's not connected and redraw it to the intersection.

Directions are going the wrong way on a one-way street
This is probably because the road is missing a one-way marker. Right click on the road section that should be one-way, select the section, edit it and mark it as one-way in the appropriate direction.


Directions are using part of a road with poor driving conditions
If your directions are using roads that, while accessible, aren't ideal for driving, edit the sections of the road in question and mark them as 'dirt' and/or reduce the number of lanes and the speed.


Directions are using an inaccessible road through a gated community or private campus
Change the priority of such roads to 'terminal' and these roads will only be used when people are going to places inside the campus or community.