3 More solutions to make Waze awesome!

[coldblaze]

Every once in a while I will try to put together a list of problems with Waze that I think should be easy to fix and will make the overall experience much better.

1.
A - Road Closures - There are temporary lane closures in cities due to parades, floods, construction etc that everyone has encountered. Unfortunately, Waze is unable to route around these in many cases, most definately if the closure is extensive. Many people have indicated that allowing Wazers to report closures could result in purposeful pranks and hijinks. I think the solution would be to allow the reporting of such events by wazers, and similar to other items, allow a driver to vote on the item when encountered, possibly allow the driver to tell waze to reroute or stay the current path, and even to allow only local site admins or those with higher rankings to approve such closures. Any solution would be better than nothing.
B - Time Sensitive Road Closures / HOV Another item associated with the above item is time sensitive changes to roads such as HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) Lanes and similar. These are roads that change direction at different times of the day, and are closed all together at certain times of day. It would be nice to be able to enter this information into Waze, and have it approved by an area administrator. For example, in Washington DC, certain roads become one direction at certain times of the day. There is always an error report from someone that was routed down a road that is rerouted due to a time of day.


2. Zoom on large highway exits. Currently Waze only has the option to zoom in on the map based on speed or turns I believe. One problem I encounter is on highways with multiple offramps or exits. I often encounter a highway with 5+ lanes with 3 or more exits near each other, and all Waze can tell me is to keep left. Which left lane should I take? The most left lane, middle left lane, or right most left lane? Other applications like Garmin or even Google maps (on android) will zoom in on complicated highway exits or ramps and other upcoming turn events. I would think it would be simple to have an option to allow Waze to zoom in and show you which specific road to take, rather than showing me a birds eye view from 10 miles up of the highway and telling me to take my best guess at which lane I should be in.

3. GPS Signal lost in Tunnels - I often encounter tunnels in which GPS signal is lost. Other GPS applications like Garmin or Google will continue to move the car along the current road at its last speed when signal is lost. This gives you an approximation of where you are in the tunnel and also gives you an idea of upcoming roads at the end of a long tunnel. Unfortunately, Waze just stops at the last point of contact, leaving you to wonder where you are, and in the event of a very long tunnel, keeps you wondering what you will encounter until Waze picks up signal again.

[AndyPoms]

1)A) See info in THIS thread about what Waze did around the Boston Marathon. There is some official Waze comments in the thread. Long story short, they have something that can do this, but it's still in the testing phases.

1)B) This has been talked about over and over again all over the fourm... Long story short, it's in the pipeline, but dont' hold your breath waiting for it...

2) I've gotten directions such as "Keep Right then Keep Left" with two arrows on the screen. If the ramps are named correctly, it should tell you (in text on the screen) what sign you should be looking for.

3) Do you have AGPS (Assisted GPS) on? It uses the cell towers to help locate you. This may help with this problem... Waze follows me through some smaller tunnels here in CT with out a problem, including those that usually lose GPS lock on a Garmin) and then thinks I'm on a surface street parallel to the highway and outside the tunnel. This isn't a full GPS loss, but there is enough interference to cause issues.

[AlanOfTheBerg]

Also, on #2, if the map is built properly, there should never be more than two branches for any freeway ramp set. Any complex moves should be, as much as is possible, be made as multiple 'Y' branches. That way, if you see a "stay left" and "stay left" coming up (or hear it), then you should be moving further to the left.

[coldblaze]

Regarding #2, I agree with all of the comments. The only exception are a couple highways where 3 or more of the lanes branch off at the same time, one going north, one west and one east for example. I've encountered this a couple times in the VA, DC, MD area. Waze can tell you to stay left, but a second stay left to me indicates the furthest left lane. I don't think there is a stay middle, or equivalent.

Making multiple Y branches might work in some cases. I know that there are times it will only confuse. As with the problem below, I think renaming splits and exits to correlate with signage on the exit is probably the best Waze can do for the time being.

This problem presents itself in another way. When driving into DC on I-395 N, there are times that the 4/5 lane highway splits right in front of you. Waze looks at the fork ahead as an exit/offramp, and assumes you know this and are on the correct side of the split. For those not familiar with the highway itself, it is a bit disconcerting to be in the left most lane, when you needed to be in the right most to continue going straight, and Waze never mentioned a thing to you, assuming you were on what is considered the main part of the highway. I know that most of this can be handled by renaming roads with exits appropriately, and I am trying to flag area managers to do so, so that the road split is mentioned in Waze ahead of time. I am not sure any other way, and often times area managers have taken upwards of 3 months to implement changes, which is sad as well.

Regarding #3, yes I have had that assisted GPS function on, and I have also had Waze jump me onto side streets and roads and then take a while to correctly pick up where I am At which time I have taken 3 wrong turns, or continued past my exit

[CBenson]

I generally agree with your suggestions.

This problem presents itself in another way. When driving into DC on I-395 N, there are times that the 4/5 lane highway splits right in front of you. Waze looks at the fork ahead as an exit/offramp, and assumes you know this and are on the correct side of the split. For those not familiar with the highway itself, it is a bit disconcerting to be in the left most lane, when you needed to be in the right most to continue going straight, and Waze never mentioned a thing to you, assuming you were on what is considered the main part of the highway.

I haven't had the occassion to come into to DC on 395 often. But when I have, I haven't noticed much of an issue. I just follow the I-395 signs until waze tells me to use another road.

I know that most of this can be handled by renaming roads with exits appropriately, and I am trying to flag area managers to do so, so that the road split is mentioned in Waze ahead of time. I am not sure any other way, and often times area managers have taken upwards of 3 months to implement changes, which is sad as well.

The other way is to learn to edit the maps yourself (and then become an area manager). However, I must say that the area manangers in Northern Virginia have really stepped it up recently. I'm surprised that you have an 3 month delay in responding to update requests inside the Beltway in Virginia at this point.

[coldblaze]

I haven't had the occassion to come into to DC on 395 often. But when I have, I haven't noticed much of an issue. I just follow the I-395 signs until waze tells me to use another road.

Yeah, there were two issues on 395 that I don't have permission to modify, I assume because its a major highway, otherwise I would have. For example, the first is when you are heading to the Capitol, Waze tells you to stay left and take exit 9. The problem is that you need to stay right and take exit 6 first. I have missed that exit 3 or 4 times in the last few months because of this. Anyway, I made a comment on the regular map and hope someone can fix it.

The other way is to learn to edit the maps yourself (and then become an area manager). However, I must say that the area manangers in Northern Virginia have really stepped it up recently. I'm surprised that you have an 3 month delay in responding to update requests inside the Beltway in Virginia at this point.

Yeah, I do edit the map myself quite a lot. There are areas though that I think require escalated privilages to modify, so I usually go into the regular map mode and make a comment. It is those comments that take a long time to fix. To be fair, the last comment I left was for up near George Mason area, which took about 3 months to resolve. It was an on-ramp that was moved.

[CBenson]

Yeah, there were two issues on 395 that I don't have permission to modify, I assume because its a major highway, otherwise I would have. For example, the first is when you are heading to the Capitol, Waze tells you to stay left and take exit 9. The problem is that you need to stay right and take exit 6 first. I have missed that exit 3 or 4 times in the last few months because of this. Anyway, I made a comment on the regular map and hope someone can fix it.

Ok. Technically you are not taking exit 6 (exit 6 is the left exit after the split (the House exit)). If you follow the I-395 signs until exit 9 you will get there. That being said that split is a special case where directions in both direction are warranted. I really think that waze used to give turn instructions in both directions here. But I see that you are correct, turn instructions are not currently given in either direction at the split. I don't know why. Some similiar problems have been discussed here. I'm thinking that maybe it would be worth changing the little segments to ramps to see if that would prompt the instructions.

What's the second issue?

Yeah, I do edit the map myself quite a lot. There are areas though that I think require escalated privilages to modify, so I usually go into the regular map mode and make a comment. It is those comments that take a long time to fix. To be fair, the last comment I left was for up near George Mason area, which took about 3 months to resolve. It was an on-ramp that was moved.

I thought that I had seen your name around the map here, but could find any edits before I posted. I have stopped checking the old cartouche for update requests. And I believe that the comments posted to the live map still only appear in the old cartouche. If you need help on areas that I have edited in downtown DC feel free to PM me.

[AlanOfTheBerg]

I really think that waze used to give turn instructions in both directions here.

Bases on previous testing on similar splits in other areas, Waze did give instructions at splits between same road type and all three segments have different names, which is the case here. If it doesn't give "stay left" and "stay right" instructions here, then something has changed in the routing/turn instructions code on the server.

There's some non-standard namings in there. Missing slash or : at least. And an extra / on the other.

EDIT: It looks like the angle may not be extreme enough at the split, which floors me. It looks just fine. But even the livemap navigation instructions extension shows a "continue" move rather than a "stay" or "turn." Maybe try increasing the angle a bit more?

[CBenson]

Bases on previous testing on similar splits in other areas, Waze did give instructions at splits between same road type and all three segments have different names, which is the case here. If it doesn't give "stay left" and "stay right" instructions here, then something has changed in the routing/turn instructions code on the server.

Some splits give instruction now (such as here) and some do not. I can't figure out what changed or what the difference is between the locations where the instructions are given and where they are not. I do not believe that this is just a freeway split problem. There are also some freeway to ramp junctions that no longer give turn instructions as discussed here.

There's some non-standard namings in there. Missing slash or : at least. And an extra / on the other.

Yeah, there is some debate over what these roads should be called even outside the waze community. The construction of the new 11th Street Bridge has caused the signs to change a bunch. I will also admit that I don't fully understand the "/" guidance in the wiki at this point. But I need to get the instructions to display at all, before I worry too much about making them more clear.

EDIT: It looks like the angle may not be extreme enough at the split, which floors me. It looks just fine. But even the livemap navigation instructions extension shows a "continue" move rather than a "stay" or "turn." Maybe try increasing the angle a bit more?

Yep. I'm getting the livemap "continue" in a bunch of places where I didn't before. I get no instruction (livemap continue) going either left or right here. I'm not sure how the angle should effect the instruction. Here is another split where I still get the instructions where the angle is narrow. I'm thinking the angle is not the critical change here.

[Spil]

Regarding #2 -- If you're just driving, then the zoom level will not change; however, if you're navigating to a destination, Waze does zoom in automatically at intersections where a turn is required. (At least, that's the behavior that I've experienced with it.)