Waze used to route you on the fastest route regardless of how private or rich a neighborhood is. Don't know if that's the still the case, but Google maps definitely doesn't give you the absolute fastest route, but rather the fastest route that takes major roads.
Could be related to Braess's paradox? In this case "adding lanes" would be "increased routing"
> [The] idea was that if each driver is making the optimal self-interested decision as to which route is quickest, a shortcut could be chosen too often for drivers to have the shortest travel times possible.
Personally I'd rather not go through neighborhoods for just a tiny micro-optimization because of how much more "work/attention" is required given the increased pedestrian traffic.
Could this be simply a case of "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of a few"?.
For example I live near a busy road during "rush hour" in the morning and evenings. A few mins up the road from me 2 major roads intersect which causes more hassle during these peak times. Now If you are travelling West to East to wish to turn right at the intersection to continue your journey south its quicker during those times to cut though my neighborhood (and same in the other direction) and cut out the queues leading up to the intersection. However my neighborhood's roads are not designed for that much traffic to flow though them (cars parked in the street narrowing the roads and reducing visablity of pedestrians esp kids playing outside).
The handful of locals that travel though the neighborhood to get home (live one side but enter the other) are fine however if Google Maps routed everyone wishing to make that turn though the neighborhood it would make the neighborhoods roads much less friendly to the pedestrians of the neighborhood esp at times kids are going to school or are back home from school and playing outside.
Keeping the through traffic to the major roads keeps everyone safer, and actually faster overall because the major roads aren't littered with cards parked in the road creating bottlenecks.
Much like how the london underground lies to travellers and routes them around long detours during busy periods to help prevent a crush if they all went the shortest & fastest route possible - https://youtu.be/IrHRQSm6LIs?t=57
Not really my experience. Seems to depend what "mood" Google Maps is in. I've definitely had it take me on circuitous routes even with recent snow which almost always makes the circuitous routes worse. If you somewhat know the area you can of course usually override.
