"Ghost traffic jams"

by **fvwazing** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:56 pm

...or throw in the "Are you in a car, experiencing traffic?" in case there is doubt that the trafficreport that is about to get generated is a valid one. Answer can be via voicerecognition ("yes" is yes, silence or "no" or "humhum" is no) and only a positive answer publishes the event. All other cases automatic.

Would beat most of the false alarms and even more important: on experiencing/recognizing a false alarm every wazer could assume there is a human playing the system and not the system playing us humans.

by **gettingthere** » Mon Apr 02, 2012 11:03 pm

fvwazing wrote:...or throw in the "Are you in a car, experiencing traffic?" in case there is doubt that the trafficreport that is about to get generated is a valid one. Answer can be via voicerecognition ("yes" is yes, silence or "no" or "humhum" is no) and only a positive answer publishes the event. All other cases automatic.

Would beat most of the false alarms and even more important: on experiencing/recognizing a false alarm every wazer could assume there is a human playing the system and not the system playing us humans.

I think this was the intent with the 'are you in traffic prompt'. But that is a failure since that does not stop an automated traffic report from being generated. It only allows the Wazer to post a manual report which then makes the automated traffic reporting mechanism 'more sensitive' or 'gives it double weight' to being created.

by **R4CLucky14** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 12:11 am

I know Tennessee has a "SmartWay" system - which measures traffic data on freeways in most urban areas and some rural areas, while also posting construction, alert signs, etc.

I know other states probably have sort of system similar to this, and I'm sure at least some other countries have a similar system, too.

I also know Waze rejected the idea of implementing these, believing their data is better - and I'm sure it is -- when there are a multitude of Wazers - where one Wazer stopping shouldn't cause a jam if 2+ more Wazers are passing him at normal speeds.

I also understand that Waze developing an interface for each of these systems would be a near nightmare. I'm almost thinking Waze ought to ask the community to develop an interface between their government's system and Waze. I know I'd be up for it if Waze gave me something to go off from.

by **fvwazing** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 7:09 am

gettingthere wrote:I think this was the intent with the 'are you in traffic prompt'. But that is a failure since that does not stop an automated traffic report from being generated. It only allows the Wazer to post a manual report which then makes the automated traffic reporting mechanism 'more sensitive' or 'gives it double weight' to being created.

No - wasn't their intent. Waze is allergic for manual intervention in trafficreportgeneration.

by **phil_whiteboy** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 10:19 am

Today i was playing pac-man in a residential area. There were aprox 10 streets with dots so i was tracing over them. About half of the streets where auto marked traffic with average speeds of 25km.

With this being the average speed limit in those areas, plus many speed bumps slowing your down, made it seem crazy to see half a neighborhood lit-up with the actual speed limit as congested just from little ole me.

by **CBenson** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 10:58 am

It might be helpful to provide:
1) Time (date+hour) including timezone
2) User name
3) segment id / permalink
4) If you can get a screenshot - that would be great.. (optional)
5) Any additional info which seems relevant

by **fvwazing** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 11:14 am

phil_whiteboy wrote:Today i was playing pac-man in a residential area. There were aprox 10 streets with dots so i was tracing over them. About half of the streets where auto marked traffic with average speeds of 25km.

With this being the average speed limit in those areas, plus many speed bumps slowing your down, made it seem crazy to see half a neighborhood lit-up with the actual speed limit as congested just from little ole me.

"Playing pac-man" suggests that not enough data was collected in these streets - but Waze felt it could generate trafficreports nevertheless? Maybe this is not what shirlig is looking for, but pls report it in detail.

by **Autourdupc** » Wed Apr 11, 2012 8:55 am

I was driving on a highway in France.
No traffic jam, some sporadic other cars on the highway.
No previous accident on the road, nothing that could slow the traffic.

I was driving at 131 km/h, and Waze said that the average speed was 58 km/h.

It was on april 10th, 9h44 french time

: screenshot-1334043894793.png (114.43 KiB) Viewed 721 times

by **robin1979** » Wed Apr 11, 2012 10:29 am

R4CLucky14 wrote:I also understand that Waze developing an interface for each of these systems would be a near nightmare.

DATEX2, it's a standard, pretty much adopted by all of Europe, and lots of other countries following.

by **foxitrot** » Wed Apr 11, 2012 1:09 pm

Autourdupc wrote:I was driving at 131 km/h, and Waze said that the average speed was 58 km/h.

What about the wazer in front of you? May have caused it as well...