Interesting idea.... so one would simply report a road closure, with no other information required. WAZE would compare the actual path with the suggested route and consider the point of departure as the point of closure.

I think that could be made to work!

More WAZERS reports would 'firm up' the closure, along with requests to confirm the closure, similar to the current requests to confirm other reports.

Does anyone think that the current 'closure' reporting system is 'working well'?

If something doesn't work, ANYTHING different has a better chance of working than what is known not to work.

Of course, some small tweaks may well fix the problems. That is why I mentioned those I observed.

Perhaps we are just suggesting ideas that have been considered and discarded already, but someone just may come up with 'the solution'.

I decided to try a different approach and sent a message pointing to this discussion through nanoRep.

Received this response:

In reply to your inquiry "report a bug"
The Champs are gonna meet this Saturday and they are going to talk about it.
Thanks for the update.
Best Regards,
Natali


This message was powered by nanoRep

suggestion:

IF any WAZE user marks a segment as 'closed' in their direction of travel
route people around that segment until

a) a WAZE user travels through it AT NORMAL SPEED
b) a WAZE user marks the 'segment NOT closed' after traveling nearby.

IF any WAZE user marks ANY nearby segment as 'closed'
route people around that segment until

a) a WAZE user travels through it at NORMAL SPEED
b) a WAZE users marks the 'segment NOT closed' after traveling nearby.

Due allowances must, of course, be made for GPS inaccuracies falsely making it seem like a user is traveling over a closed segment that is parallel to a usable segment.

And a way of choosing which segments are blocked needs to be provided.
A series of questions that can be verbally queued and answered with simple key words would be ideal.
Is the closure on your current route? yes/no
Is the closure ahead of you or behind you? ahead/behind
.... with questions that allow specifying things like
it was off my route, on a ramp on my right
it was on my route and in the other direction...
I suggest starting by compiling possible scenarios and deciding the best ways of covering each of them.

Any word from the meeting?

Well, as there are no Bugs, maybe another approach might help. Today I had liked to use that feature, but my report was only usable for myself, all other CM reported a no show.

So I'm going to report this in the way of a normaly working function that might have gone sour, maybe we get some movement into the story...

I might share your doubts, but at least Noam has taken a look on it...what I don't think about this thread...twelve pages and not a single comment from the almighty Waze himself

Maybe the globals in this thread might join in the topic I started in the direct access to get a focus on the various problems stated here. At least our common request for more effect of reports from high level users might be heard.

During the shield implementation I learned, that even single users can have special privleges within the app (I've been the only one seeing the shields in my country during a test phase), so it might be possible to get at least CM the power to close a road on a single report.

Carl, maybe join the thread in direct access...it might help to put some weight on the issues with this feature...

Also, whila I'm at it, just a quick thought:

The need to proof a report as legit comes from the fear of false reports (my hypohtesis)
Maybe there won't be a need for harsh restrictions on accepting reports, if just a single Wazer going over THE WHOLE closed segment would reset the closure, therefore allmost imediately clearing any false reports...

deeggo wrote:As if the champs discussing something will make Waze fix outstanding bugs. Very peculiar.

..on the other hand, you never know...

I had my first opportunity to use the road closure feature in the wild this morning also. First, as I expected waze did reroute me after I indicated that the road ahead on my route was closed.

The interface is rather clunky to use, but I could get the job done. In this first experience in the city, it seems that waze wants to simply reroute around the block to get you back on your route rather than calculate a new best route to your destination from the point where you indicate the closure (this is only my gut feeling, maybe going around the block would be the best new route). However, as it not unlikely that multiple blocks of a city street may be closed at once, that means you have to go through the "road closure" input multiple times as waze keeps trying to take you back to the closed road one block further down. This is a rather onerous method of indicating a multiple segment closure that I suspect most users won't put up with.

I also found that the "Changing route" popup that comes up when you indicate that the road on your route is closed to be rather annoying. Of course waze is changing the route, why do I need to fiddle with yet another action to close the popup to see the intersection though which I am being rerouted? As far as needing multiple users to report a closed road, I hope that this takes into account the normal volume on the road. I understand, needing multiple indications in the circumstance where the road doesn't normally have sufficient recent data to show it is not being used. But for a major thoroughfare that normally sees multiple users in any 10 minute span, it seems to me that one user indicating that the road is closed, plus the absence of any new tracks should be sufficient to cause other users to be rerouted.

A couple of other points that I noted, for the first block that was closed I did not enter a duration. For the second block that I indicated closed, I entered a duration of all day (a temporary building was being constructed on the road next the convention center). When I arrived at the office maybe 15 minutes later, both showed on my phone, but neither shows on the live map. A few minutes later, the first (duration-less) closure pin disappeared from my phone, but the second (all day) pin remains on my phone now.