Road Closure discussion thread

[AlanOfTheBerg]

I'm starting this thread to discuss the road closure feature released in v3.6. Instead of burying information in individual OS-based client threads, it seems to make sense to put it here.

Here are two articles Waze/Noam have tweeted today regarding the new closure feature. I assure you, most Champs did not know some of the details shared in the articles prior to today either. We aren't keeping info from anyone.

http://www.waze.com/blog/introducing-wa ... nexpected/
http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... -c-2013-02
http://mashable.com/2013/02/27/waze-road-closed/
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/2 ... ads-close/
http://www.fastcoexist.com/1681469/waze ... n-steroids
http://gigaom.com/2013/02/27/waze-adds- ... id-update/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/27/waze- ... -its-maps/
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/02/ ... p-updates/

And here's what I posted to the Android v3.6 thread regarding what I've gleaned from the articles so far.

Articles posted on the internets today suggest there is a critical mass of users who must report a road closed. There is some magical trickery which assigns what is referred to as a "trust value" to users. Maybe that's rank, who knows?! But fewer users of higher trust value are required to close a road and affect routing for all users. (This sounds a bit similar to users required to unapprove cameras from the use of the "Not there" button in the app.)

[davipt]

First test, a road closure reported by one user does not appear at all on the map of the other user, nor affects the routing as expected. If it works, how many reports will be necessary, I wonder...

[rottielover]

I think time will tell.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[seriousarsonist]

Been using this feature in the beta, it's good but it needs the arrows to be larger to make them easier to select


Belfast and Co. Down area manager
Waze Beta - iPhone 4s iOS 6.1.2

[xteejx]

Tested this a couple hours ago. A noob friend, pink not baby, reported a closure.
Didn't appear on my client but when I reported it, it closed straight away.
I'm a level 4 editor, he's a level 0 or 1, whatever that first one is now.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[davipt]

Tested this a couple hours ago. A noob friend, pink not baby, reported a closure.
Didn't appear on my client but when I reported it, it closed straight away.
I'm a level 4 editor, he's a level 0 or 1, whatever that first one is now.

What do you exactly mean "it closed straight away"?

[AlanOfTheBerg]

What do you exactly mean "it closed straight away"?

The term "straight away" means "immediately."

Question xteejx: you are stating that it reported "closed" and would not route for your friend, correct?

[fvwazing]

If workings are as described, we will need at least 6 reporting Wazers to shut down a typical stretch of highway.

Consider this situation - road blocked at "X".

step2.png (109.43 KiB) Viewed 1180 times

Wazers on the blue track will report THE NEXT SEGMENT closed. As soon as that block works, Wazers coming from the same direction will be guided off the highway ONE EXIT TOO EARLY and into the roadblock - over the green track. The density of loose Wazers driving around and reporting the entry-ramp closed is far less than those on the highway - per definition, almost.

It remains to be seen how many Wazers will find the time to report AND do it right - I estimate it is far less than 100% unless they have a Waze-enthousiast as a passenger.

[fvwazing]

Ppl, the previous post was not meant to END discussions, but to IGNITE them! I have seen traffic-jams with roadblocks over the past months that had dozens of Wazers involved in them and where enough critical mass would have been to make the described scheme work out. However... we have roadblocks (for short periods) every day, and my critique is that this scheme is not sensitive enough to catch most of those.

Any real-life experience collected yet?

[scarlogarcia]

http://www.waze.com/blog/

So, How Does It Work?

It’s easy. Upon encountering a road closure, just tap the closure icon in the report screen. Choose the type of closure (hazard, construction, or ‘event’) and mark how long you anticipate it’ll last. For extended closures, the map editing community will close the roads via the Waze map editor.

Once a road closure is properly reported, Waze will close off the road and route others around it.


Smart systems are also in place to ensure accuracy and predict reality. Waze will only close down a road once its algorithm has enough evidence to discount the possibility of error. Alternatively, once Waze detects cars driving on a closed off street, it will automatically return the road to its normal status and routing will resume as normal.

That's all we had "officially"