Road Closure discussion thread

[lakeyboy]

I honestly think that Waze has set it's bar too high for accepting road closures. I'm a level 3 editor and I tried to report a closure on a local road which no wazer has probably ever driven down, and the icon appears for a closure after filling out the form, but then goes away quickly and doesn't close the road for others. I can understand for frequently used roads it takes a few wazers but if one experienced user can't close one unimportant road, something is wrong.

[jwkilgore]

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.

[jwkilgore]

I honestly think that Waze has set it's bar too high for accepting road closures. I'm a level 3 editor and I tried to report a closure on a local road which no wazer has probably ever driven down, and the icon appears for a closure after filling out the form, but then goes away quickly and doesn't close the road for others. I can understand for frequently used roads it takes a few wazers but if one experienced user can't close one unimportant road, something is wrong.

This is one of my standard complaints. Reports from people who take the time to prove that they want to improve the system instead of just gain points should have extra weight. I'm trusted to open a browser and completely delete a road, but for some reason I'm not trusted to report a temporary road closure because of construction.

I'm a level 4 map editor with over a hundred thousand map edits, tens of thousands of driving miles, and hundreds of reports. But according to Wazes's computers and automated algorithms, I'm just as worthlessly untrustworthy someone who installed Waze 101 miles ago. Something is wrong with this picture.

[CBenson]

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.

I would avoid angles of about 45 degrees. It is better to use departure angles of 20 to 30 degrees as discussed here: http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Junc ... e#Geometry.

45 degrees is the cut off between giving a keep/exit or a turn instruction. So unless you are really good at distinguishing 44 degree angles from 46 degree angles, when you make an angle of "about 45 degrees" you don't really know if you are creating an exit instruction or a turn instruction.

[CBenson]

I'm a level 4 map editor with over a hundred thousand map edits, tens of thousands of driving miles, and hundreds of reports. But according to Wazes's computers and automated algorithms, I'm just as worthlessly untrustworthy someone who installed Waze 101 miles ago.

I don't think this true. As Alan stated in the OP:

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.

The algorithm may well be miscalibrated, but I don't know of any indication that it treats you the same as a baby Wazer.

[bretmcvey]

This is the ramp that I'd encountered. The angle is set so that it would properly give an "Exit.." command based on the geometry, but you can see if you highlight the interstate segment prior that, the turn arrows fall too closely together.

https://www.waze.com/editor/?zoom=6&lat=40.92722&lon=-96.451&layers=BFTFFTTTFTTTTTTTTTTTTFT&segments=68820827

So is this more a case of needing a wider angle, or a case of an acute angle being problematic for the road closure feature that works better with perpendicular intersections?

[davipt]

I would avoid angles of about 45 degrees. It is better to use departure angles of 20 to 30 degrees as discussed here: http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Junc ... e#Geometry.

There seems to be a new script for that, but haven't tested it.

[CBenson]

This is the ramp that I'd encountered.

Well you could do something more like this:
https://www.waze.com/editor/?zoom=7&lat ... TTTTTTTTFT
as discussed here:
http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Junc ... ging_Roads

However, the road closure feature should not depend on editors doing this.

[ncc1701v]

I would avoid angles of about 45 degrees. It is better to use departure angles of 20 to 30 degrees as discussed here: http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Junc ... e#Geometry.

There seems to be a new script for that, but haven't tested it.

I found it just as easy to hit intermediate degrees like 30 and 70 - that takes a lot less time than actually measuring the degrees to be sure you're right.

[sketch]

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.

We shouldn't have to do this just to work around the closure tool. It should work with our maps, not the other way around.