Why do user reports auto expire?

by **skarabe** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 7:30 pm

Isn't the whole idea with Waze to keep traffic info user driven? Then why do reports auto expire?

If Waze still insist on keeping the auto expire, I suggest they should consider extend the expiry period AND for ever wazer driving past the event and NOT removing the event, the expiry counter should start over..

dmcconachie · by **dmcconachie** » Sun Oct 30, 2011 7:36 pm

skarabe wrote:Then why do reports auto expire?

Because traffic/police/hazards etc don't last forever!

The automated traffic reports (the ones that actually affect routing) will be maintained as long as there is an active wazer caught in the traffic!

by **skarabe** » Tue Nov 01, 2011 7:42 pm

dmcconachie wrote:Because traffic/police/hazards etc don't last forever!

Naturally.. But if an e.g hazard no longer exists, the first wazer passing it would click "not there" and voilà! User driven! Personally I'd prefer to be warned of a hazard, police etc that is no longer there every now and then, instead of Not be warned when it Is there and has actually been reported.

Maybe some reports can have shorter expiry times than others, e.g police vs construction.

by **RallyChris** » Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:09 pm

My personal experience is that everything but construction is normally on the too long side. And the construction is just because normally construction is a whole day thing, or long term that we have to do tricks with to handle since we don't have a temporary outage system yet.

Yes, the next person can say not there. But you have to be able to handle the, there is no next person scenario.

I also think it would be nice, if when an auto report is cleared, that it will take all the manual traffic reports with it. No need to have the bubble saying there is traffic, if the auto detect routines think the issue is gone.

by **petervdveen** » Thu Nov 03, 2011 8:19 pm

I think Police reports should auto expire around midnight.
Most mobile speedcams are on the same position the whole day.

by **randomact** » Sat Jan 07, 2012 8:54 pm

I found it very surprising that "pothole" hazards expire quickly, in one case an hour after being posted. Maybe wherever the devs live potholes are filled within an hour but up here in the dark and cold north it's more like 6-8 months. I think they should be persistent until someone drives by and reports them no longer there.

by **gettingthere** » Mon Jan 09, 2012 3:34 pm

If I reported every pothole that I pass by and they stayed until someone closed them, you would not be able to see the map at all through all of the hazard PINS!

dmcconachie · by **dmcconachie** » Mon Jan 09, 2012 3:38 pm

gettingthere wrote:If I reported every pothole that I pass by and they stayed until someone closed them, you would not be able to see the map at all through all of the hazard PINS!

Same here. Sometimes it feels like you'd be better off reporting bits of road rather than the holes!

by **gettingthere** » Mon Jan 09, 2012 3:41 pm

Really, pothole should not be reported at all unless it's more like a sinkhole and your entire car will be swallowed up :shock:

by **WeeeZer14** » Mon Jan 09, 2012 4:06 pm

gettingthere wrote:Really, pothole should not be reported at all unless it's more like a sinkhole and your entire car will be swallowed up

I guess it depends on where you are. I am not sure what the CA baseline of a pothole is, but I can speak to and compare two areas:

1.) NYC region - Here your definition of sink hole applies. Potholes that bend rims and mess up alignment are a way of life, especially around the winter. If there is a road with no potholes, it was just paved in the past 10 days or less.

2.) East TN - Here the DOT does an amazing job at paving roads. They have these trucks with lasers on them to measure the road surface and they grind down the road surface so it is smooth -- even at transitions between concrete and asphalt at overpasses and bridges. (The last few years have been tough with harsh winters and low budgets, so roads aren't to that level in some places any more.) Anyway, I've actually seen a pothole make the evening news on more than one occasion and it wasn't even big. People just aren't used to them here.

Personally, I think a pothole should only be reported in one of these cases:
1.) It will swallow your car or cause damage to an average car (not a compact car lowered to a finger-width from the road riding on low profile tires).
2.) It is located in such a way that people are swerving out of their lanes to avoid it.
3.) And maybe if the pothole is throwing up debris when people hit it.

Of course expecting all users to think that hard about a pothole is a pipe dream