Why Google Maps Doesn't Show You Unsafe Areas

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🖖 Hey! I'm Enrico and on this channel I go behind the scenes of the design, psychology and stories behind tech and making stuff on the internet. I'm a tech Product Manager, builder of things made of pixels.

This is a new kind of video, in a series where I break down product strategy and product decisions in a non-boring way. Don't have a name for this yet, but I hope you enjoy it!

[enricotartarotti]

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[Kizilejderha]

There is a difference between telling someone that an area is unsafe to walk through drunk at 2 AM, and telling people to outright avoid it at all cost. No one is going to avoid your business just because that street is slightly dangerous at some off-business hours. And if a street is life threateningly dangerous, people *should* know

[scottsimon]

People should be given route options like fastest, safest, most direct, etc. If someone has an emergency & needs to get somewhere as quick as possible, he would probably task the risk of driving through an unsafe area to save time, but tourists who don't know the area, should be able to choose the safest route. This can be done without shading an entire area as unsafe, but just showing the safest route.

[ellyhunter]

Google maps have started adding more shortcuts that used to be only local knowledge. It has been constantly sending people down a lane that goes into a wooded area with no lighting, in the middle of the night. I would hear people walking past my window at 2am with Google maps on loudly. So not only did they clearly have no idea where they were or what they were going into, they also were announcing that fact to anyone looking for trouble up there. It's also a really unnecessary shortcut. It turns into a really steep hill, and the couple of minutes you might save at normal speed are negated by the hill. That's more information that isn't on the app. I gave feedback to Google about it, but they won't do anything obviously. I don't think that a full scale crime map is necessary, but simply flagging an area as unlit, steep, secluded, or not accessible for all would be really helpful. Or they could just stop mapping shortcuts and leave then to the locals who know what they are doing. As a woman trying to navigate the streets, an unlit back alley is not just a minor inconvenience, but a real threat to safety.

[jbritain]

I think a pretty easy solution is to just have a routing option that keeps you on main roads instead of back alleys apart from where strictly necessary

[georgecozma]

Maybe relying on objective data is the better way to do it

1) Is the area poorly lit?
2) Are the buildings rundown?
3) Is there little foot traffic in the area?
4) Is the area a no-go police zone?

I'm sure that you can get more creative and also the level of danger could be adjusted depending on the time of day.

To counter my own point, this could be a bit of a broken window fallacy, but the added advantage would be that it would also improve the user experience. I mean travelling on an empty, poorly lit street with decrepit buildings isn't exactly my idea of fun.

[wolfie]

I was visiting in a sketchy area and my Apple Watch wanted me to 'go for a walk' late at night to close my rings. I said "Apple's trying to kill me again" 😂😂😂

[anne]

I thought about this one a lot, There is a couple of safe bets you can do which will not remove all danger but quite a bit of it.
- prefer streets with shops
- avoid
- garage-ways
- residential courtyards
- avoid highway bridges (below and under)
- avoid at all costs Parks at Night !!!

[TphTph]

Maybe avoid the whole problem by relying on the individual who is currently navigating. Disregard crime rates and other data sources. If I am navigating with gmaps and feel unsafe, I should be able to hit a button "I feel unsafe, please reroute" prompting maps to firstly find the quickest way out of this part of town and calculate a new route that avoids it. It may not be as elegant as other solutions but you would avoid large scale changes to how people are moving through a city.
That's just the first thought that came to mind when I watched this video.

[Prizzlesticks]

Look, I don't really care about crime rates (I've got super invisibility as a power, it's not something I stress about), I just wish Google Maps didn't try to steadfastly force me to cross a bridge that literally has no deck and has been reported out of service for several months, no matter how many times I tried to force an alternate route. Like, don't tempt me, Google, it's 1 a.m. and I just worked 12 hours shift on Thanksgiving and my Lyft cancelled on me last minute. I might just.

[nikoandroman]

A girl of my school and his friend got shot just because Google Maps led them into a dangerous area. This happened in Monterrey, Mexico and it led them into Independencia which is probably one of the most dangerous areas in our city, they were returning from a concert trying to get to some other friend’s house and Google Maps led them right into that area. Fortunately both survived but I think a feature like this is needed to stop this from happening

[truthsmiles]

The other problem is that Google would end up being sued by people who get mugged while traveling through a "safe area".
Moreover, just because an area is 'high crime', it could be that 99% of that crime happens between rival gangs and is actually quite safe for those not involved - I have lived in such neighborhoods before and other than having my house tagged once, was left completely alone and never feared for my safety.

[ilyasolgun]

I was surprised by how accurate the thumbnail was with the dangerous area, I used to work in a shop in Finsbury and it was in-between on the border with he Finsbury gangs and manor house gangs, it was super dangerous but we were not bothered because we used to give some of the gang members so free food. It was surreal to me and I will never go there again

[Mohono]

actually they have system like that, called googl street view. Let me explain: I'm from İstanbul and as most people known it's very famous city and very well visited city from all over world. And anyone has been in istanbul would tell you Taksim area is most tourist are. Just by walking 3-5 min walking distance there is neirborhood called "tarlabaşı" And that area did not street viewed. Other area jist a few hundred metre close istiklal street (main street of are ) is street viewed over deacde like almost every one or two years.
Another example in same city, most expats live in Şişli area but just behind of Trump Tower neirborhood called "kuştepe" is never also street viewed.

If you wanna see which places you should not go, that would be where google street view did not go. In 20 million people lived in that city and %5 of downtown is not street viewed over decade and here is your answer.

Anyone can check it from google street view map in downton istanbul realize it

[SinisterShrink]

I think the moral of the story is too not completely rely on technology. If you're in a foreign city I would suggest asking the locals for directions or even just ask them if there are areas to avoid. This way you get accurate information and you might even make new friends.

[DayZilya]

Actually such map already exists. Or it's similar to what you are talking about in the video. It's called "hoodmaps". And it is extremely and hilariously accurate.
I lived in Saints Petersburg, Russia and the description people gave to the districts are on point.
I strongly recommend people check it out.

[Trancer]

If the crime reports are driving customers and tourists away shouldn't the communities fight against the crime in those areas? it should incentivize the people to be more cautious and up-and-arms against criminal and immoral activities. but they'll complain about the low ratings instead...

[thonnytrombonni]

this happened to me in Brazil, me and a friend were biking on our city and i think google maps route for bikes avoid steep roads bcs the main road is hard to climb and we got re-routed to a really poor and far suburb, there was a dude naked on daylight, people looking at us weird and he told me there was a drug point there

[really...]

I would totally use this to mark my neighborhood as the complete and utter hood to keep gentrification out and rising home costs.

I would love this. I would make sure there were alerts all times of day. Because my city has had locals virtually priced out now that everyone can work remotely.

[kabanning]

Actually, though, another way to get an idea of what parts of a city are particularly rough to go to would be through pizza/food delivery drivers. Many of these places have "don't go" lists where it's unsafe to send their drivers especially after dark. I'd actually consider speaking to them when building such a feature.