One item that I wish had more detail when displayed on the map, the icons. When I’m driving a route and there are all sorts of notices of traffic or police, it’s difficult to tell (without opening the ‘events on route’ list or tapping on the icon itself) what direction of travel the notices apply to. Would it be possible for the icons to have a ‘westbound’ or ‘eastbound’ symbol included so that you can tell if it is affecting your direction of travel? I wouldn’t expect it to spell out the entire word but maybe a ‘W’ or ‘E’ or even shape the notification bubble in a way that you can tell easily that it is for one direction or the other.
Another item that would be nice - when i’m stopped and the area notifications start popping up, it’s very confusing what area of the map I am actually looking at because it displays in the same direction that I happen to be facing at that moment. Can you make it so that users can select for the area notifications map to always show up with North at the top of the map? I know that you can set the compass during navigation to keep North fixed but I like the map to turn with me while navigating and I would rather it be fixed when the area notifications start popping up.
And one last thing - it would be nice if you could have the ability to post where a traffic snarl up ends. You can currently post Moderate, Heavy & Standstill traffic - why not let users mark the point that the traffic lets up so that you can know (if you’re taking the side streets to avoid a jam) where they can hop back on a roadway beyond the jam.
Wait a sec, I lied - I thought of another thing - why not give your users the ability to post the speeds at which they are travelling instead of “moderate”, “heavy” & “standstill”? “Standstill” is pretty self explanatory but “moderate” & “heavy” are kind of open ended and not terribly clear as to how bad it really is. I understand that your maps usually show the speed that traffic is travelling but that isn’t always the most accurate and if you could give the users the ability to post their average speeds it could only make the notices more valuable to others. It could be speed ranges such as “0-20 mph”, “20-40”…etc…
Just a few thoughts while staring at your wonderful app… Thanks for keeping me moving!
Commenting from the WAZE side? Are you referring to another place that I can speak directly to WAZE people or are you wondering why the WAZE people haven’t responded to my post?
The manual reports do nothing. It’s the automatic reports and extrapolated speed data that is used for routing so there is no need to add a button for where a traffic jam ends, waze will know.
The average speed is always correct. I don’t see a problem with it.
For the other suggestions, have a look on uservoice.
I have to disagree with you on the “average speed is always correct…waze will know” thing as there have been plenty of times that what waze was reporting did not directly reflect the speed I was travelling. Besides, what would be the harm of having people report it to help the data stream? If waze isn’t using manual reports then what’s the point of having them available to be used?
Manual report are for points and confirmation of traffic jams, police etc. The speeds are averages but it takes historical averages into account.
Not sure, I don’t have the link, try Googling it unless someone else can provide a link.
Have you looked on there recently? It’s quite obvious that Waze have stopped using this is a worthwhile medium from the number that need closing as irrelevant or implemented (mostly by WME extensions) - like all the ones relating to Cartouche.
It’s the average over the entire length of the segment. It IS very accurate except when conditions are changing rapidly due to something that has just happened.
If it weren’t accurate my ETAs at the start of my ~25 mile daily commute wouldn’t be +/- 1 minute of when I actually arrive. This is course if two people haven’t decided to meet by accident along my route after I’ve set off; the ETA at the start isn’t going to know that conditions will suddenly become really bad because of something that hasn’t happened yet.
In addition the average human is not able to properly calculate the speed of a traffic jam. Unless you have jams in your area that are a consistent speed. In the typical jam you are stopped, moving very slowly or a bit faster which is constantly changing.
I have zero faith that the average Wazer can accurately estimate the speed of a longer traffic jam. Human vs computer (with well written software). Which is generally more accurate with mathmatical calculations?
Your ETA’s may be accurate where you are living, but the average speed that waze reports in my area (NYC) are not. My ETA’s are constantly fluctuating… That would be the reason for my suggestion.
Oh, ye of little “faith”… The computers can still do the calculations, just using the feedback that the user provides as well as the road data. Besides, how hard is it really to average out your speed in a traffic jam? I would say it’s pretty easy when you’re crawling along a roadway.
Which it already does and it already displays. What you suggested in the OP in regards to jams already exists; a jam will end on the last segment that has abnormally, compared against historical, slow transit. It’s pointless to display it ending mid-segment since you can’t join back in mid-segment unless your car happens to be equipped with an oscillation overthruster to phase through those buildings in your way.
I don’t think it is average speed across the segment.
The question of whether long freeway segments should be broken into smaller segments so that waze will more accurately pinpoint jams has been frequently raised. My understanding is that waze’s position is that it is not necessary or helpful.
I am also a reasonably certain that you do not need to traverse an entire segment for waze to detect the jam. I have been on freeway segments that have been completely blocked by an accident. No one who was delayed got by, yet waze would indicate the jam within minutes of the accident.
Yes, this is correct. The entire segment is updated with the jam speed and the speed will continue to update on this segment until you complete the segment or other Wazer(s) drive the segment.
To clarify how it’s able to do this: Waze knows your current position, how fast you’re currently moving, how much farther you need to go to exit the segment, and what your average speed has been for the previous portion of the current segment. Given that information it can extrapolate an average speed for the entire segment without you having yet exited the segment. Once a wazer has traversed the entire segment, their now true non-extrapolated average can update the segments real-time average speed.
This means that it is possible for a situation where an accident has happened early in a very long segment and you’re the only wazer currently on it; given a long enough delay you’ll bring the expected average way down until you clear the accident, then it’ll start to climb back up, creating a “flashing” traffic jam. I’d expect this to only happen in low density areas.
The computers can still do the calculations, just using the feedback that the user provides as well as the road data. Besides, how hard is it really to average out your speed in a traffic jam? I would say it’s pretty easy when you’re crawling along a roadway.