Road Closure discussion thread

by **fvwazing** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 1:52 am

I have no positive confirmation, though I asked around in our local forum (would be a miracle by itself, given the participation here). I have not had the opportunity myself to report a valid closure of a freeway. I estimate that 40-50 Wazers were involved in the incident, over a timespan of 5 hours. No doubt that many are not aware of the functionality (I saw a brief reminder of it pop up once, a minute after I drove off). And of those who are aware - not all find the right buttons even though that jam was standing still. Kind of a "Drake's equation" here. What are the odds?

by **fvwazing** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 5:21 pm

I just did some testdriving. My area is so clean that I had to make a 20km detour to reach a segment of freeway with extraneous nodes. Well, I could have saved myself the trouble. It is indeed impossible to reach the next split if you are behind an extraneous node. Worse than that; if you are behind a "join" you can select the joining node - but the segment that is reported closed is the one before the join, the segment you are driving at the moment of reporting. Counterintuitive, that is.

by **fvwazing** » Mon Mar 04, 2013 10:11 pm

CBenson wrote:
fvwazing wrote: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.

So if I understand this correctly, the reporting wazer will be immediately rerouted based on his/her own closure report. But if on the freeway, where the next segment is just the freeway segment between the off ramp and the on ramp, the reroute can be straight back down the on ramp to the closed freeway. It seems that is what howsmith reports here.

In my first example I assumed that at least the traffic coming down from the last-offramp-before-the-closure would be guided to the next junction after the actual accident, some km further. All traffic coming from behind would be guided as per stupid deviation around the jam reported by the original reporter (assuming there is a jam before the closure; typically there is) and would have to report some closures more.
In MY almost-perfect part of the Waze-world, off-ramps are not connected to on-ramps wherever possible - howsmith ran into a ramp that is clearly mis-configured and in his case he would have had to report another closure - of the onramp.
Anyway, you need a lot more closure-reports for a single stretch of freeway.

by **fvwazing** » Thu Mar 07, 2013 11:46 pm

No, as in my typical freeway-examples above you need 3 or 4 closures for a stretch, each of these confirmed by a number of Wazers, within a reasonable time. Will not happen soon, and until every mousehole is closed expect routing to bend over backwards to send you into that sheet of ice.

by **fvwazing** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 1:24 am

jwkilgore wrote:The solution is simple:
- Expand the closeable roads to include 3-4 segments in either direction starting at the one you're on, including the segment you are on.

I am afraid the solution is not that simple. Yes, there are situations where your scheme could help in reaching at least more of the segments that you want to report closed. Even the typical #-crossing is impossible to close now. But with more options to choose from than the current "solution" it would take patience, a precise control over your fingertip and maybe even advanced gaming skills

. It takes a very cool head to do that on the freeway, at the same moment slamming your bakes to avoid running into a jam, with ambulances and firetrucks whizzing by, police motorists clearing the traffic as it rolls, at night and in bad weather.

And it is not enough that YOU manage to do all that, some other Wazers have to confirm/copy your actions as well.

by **fvwazing** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 3:40 pm

Curious - in the first image it looks like that short segment is "skipped" and the next (left)turn is offered.

"Others will be routed around it" is misleading at least.

by **jwkilgore** » Fri Mar 08, 2013 1:09 pm

It just so happens that they're doing a massive pavement grinding/repaving operation all around my building and parking garage this week so I've had the opportunity to play around with the Road Closure feature.

My main problem is similar to other reporting problems with Waze: ability to report something other than where you are RIGHT NOW. Specifically it only allows the closure of segments immediately adjacent to the segment you're on, or segments adjacent to where you just drove. During an entire week of road closure reporting I have never managed to successfully report all the affected roads as closed because Waze won't let me.

Examples:
1) Driving north on a split boulevard, I observed that the south-bound lanes are closed. Hit the Report -> Road closure feature, but it would not let me report the other lane as closed because it was separated from mine by one segment (the cross street at the nearest intersection).
2) I observe a road closure ahead. Because of one-way streets, I turn off this road 1 block ahead of the closure. The next segment is open, and I cannot report the closed segment because it is too far away from me. I assume that if I could have hit the report button while in the middle of the intersection just as I was turning Waze would think I was going straight so I could have reported it, but reporting a closure isn't worth a wreck.
3) I observe the road I am on is closed at the next intersection, and successfully report it closed. But the closure extends for 3 blocks, and I cannot report the adjoining segments.
4) This morning, the segments for my parking garage (both entrances) were closed. The entrance is a very short distance down the segment so I was able to drive around the signs and enter anyway. It would not let me report my segment was closed because obviously I was driving on it. I could have reported it BEFORE I entered the segment, but I assume that driving on it afterwards would have nullified the closure report.

The examples in (1-3) are ones that have been rehashed several times; the other situations were with people reporting a closure while exiting a highway, but because they're only allowed to report the next segment Waze will just route people around that segment and right back into the mess.

The example in (4) has huge implications with interstate driving because segments are often ridiculously long (another complaint of mine). Because divided highways will always be separated by at least one segment from the other driving direction, and you cannot report your own segment, no one will be able to report it closed until the backup reaches one node to the rear. The road could be blocked by a huge wreck in the desert and people could be setting up tents, building campfires, and cooking supper in the middle of the road. But 20 miles back Waze is happily routing new sheep into the carnage.

The solution is simple:
- Expand the closeable roads to include 3-4 segments in either direction starting at the one you're on, including the segment you are on.

by **jwkilgore** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 4:44 pm

The only change with my suggestion would be that there would simply be more roads available to click on. No advanced gaming skills required.

Actually, you are helping to make my point. While sitting in slow traffic one segment before the exit ramp, you can spend all the time you want to report the road 3 segments ahead is closed. Give a detailed description. Carefully make sure you select the correct road segment(s). Type a novel into the comments box.

The problem comes when you have to wait until you are right at the turn before you can report the closure (and possibly an accident) while trying to accelerate along with traffic.

Same exact complaint when sitting in a traffic backup behind a wreck (not a closure, just a slowdown), or in construction, or whatever. Do you report the wreck in the wrong place with lots of info, or do you wait until you are passing the wreck to report it correctly but with no information?

by **jwkilgore** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 3:51 pm

bretmcvey wrote:This just happened to be my view of the closure. I've yet to run into an instance of someone else reporting a closure. This particular one was given a "long term" status for closure due to the road being torn out completely for construction that will last months. It stayed visible to me longer than a few hours, but by the next day was no longer visible.

Something affected for "months" should be changed in the Editor.

by **jwkilgore** » Thu Mar 21, 2013 4:52 pm

bretmcvey wrote:Has anyone had any success at attempting to close an interstate ramp or similar acute deviation from the route being traveled?

I made an attempt last week at a mapped weigh station with an exit ramp that was closed due to construction. The ramp's close "x" icon wasn't far enough apart from the interstate (forward) section. If I'd pressed the only closure x there in the diagram, it would have resulted in me submitting the interstate and not the ramp was close down.

The client may need to factor in shallow angles and better offset the buttons in those cases.

This sounds like a place where you can help. Go to www.waze.com/editor and change the ramp angle yourself

Zoom way in and make the ramp angle about 45 degrees for just a few feet then turn back to the real-life shallow angle. The road will look the same when zoomed out, but it will handle directions better and things like the road closure arrows will stand out better.