I need a level 3 -> 1 unlock to record a road section that is closed for long term construction.
Thanks!
-Eric.
Hi Eric.
As a R1 you can’t close a road in the editor. However, if you can post the details here for what is needed, we can get it closed.
Which road? How long? What is happening?
A link to the road work data will be best if you know it. Otherwise we can search. Thanks.
JB.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
You know what? Never mind. I’m sick of battling Waze’s pointless and arbitrary editor level system where only the rare anointed few are deigned awesome enough to report something as mundane as a road closure for long term construction. And apparently I’m far from alone as the road I’m trying to report is one of three major thoroughfares into one of the largest cities in Michigan, it’s been closed for a week now, and no one else has bothered to report it, either.
I’ve reported it daily for a week now from my iPhone as I drive around it. I’ve reported it as a Map Error twice now. I’ve submitted pictures of the road closure signs and the construction vehicles and torn up road behind them. Every day, Waze routes me and, no doubts, hundreds of other drivers right through the closed road because I’m not worthy of actually being allowed to report a road closure.
I know it’s not your problem and I appreciate you stopping to help, but there’s just no point. I’m not going to jump throw flaming hoops and find government websites and listings to prove that what I’ve already reported over and over is really happening. I’ll just keep driving by it and let someone else waste their time trying to report it.
Thanks anyway, but I’m out.
-Eric.
Hi Eric,
Adding closures and maintaining them requires experience with using the editor and its related tools, so closure permissions are restricted to a rank where most editors are managing their own area. It may seem simple, but the concept of closures as it relates to editing is extremely nuanced.
As to your other point, any closure we enter has to be vetted against official sources, whether it’s an anonymous user report that we’re responding to, or even our own observations. If I spot something on the road, I don’t enter it until I confirm it elsewhere. We do this not to validate if the closure exists, but to gather information needed to maintain it. How long is it going to be closed? Will the closure switch directions at some point when construction is done? Are there any other cross street closures? Did they close anything else to prevent unwanted detours through residential areas? All of these questions need to be considered before just dropping an arbitrary closure on a road, refer to my earlier point about closures being nuanced - this is one example.
And finally, the closure itself - the city’s time schedule indicates that this work should have been done already, construction was scheduled to end the 17th with the closure being removed by the 22nd at the latest. This obviously is not the case and they are behind schedule, so I closed it for a week. If it opens early or needs to be extended, please let us know.
Thanks to you, too, for explaining more of the issue.
Even without your explanation, I get that Waze needs to be careful with who they let do what in their maps. But the system now, where each Level 3 or above rules over their own little kingdom and locks down everything that it’s possible for level 1 and 2 editors to make any changes to doesn’t work very well. It’s discouraging to people like me who would gladly take the time to contribute to Waze if it wasn’t such an annoying PITA to do.
This is the third time I’ve driven by closed roads for days while, every day, I’d report them as being closed for long term construction projects and then, only a few hours later, Waze was happily routing people through the closed roads. Why do I waste my time when reporting a closed road, even a long-term closure simply resets itself to “open” in a few hours?? Certainly no one else bothered to mark them as closed and I can see why. Apparently whoever writes Waze’s code thinks that all road construction projects are completed within a few hours. Wouldn’t that be nice?? Not very realistic, though.
Two more examples were bridges over rivers that had been completely removed, as in GONE. No bridge at all. Nothing but a big empty gorge with running water at the bottom. Whichever demigod that owned that part of the map had locked EVERYTHING so that only a Level 5 editor could touch anything. It took me more than a week to get someone’s attention so that the damned bridge could be marked as being out so that Waze would quit routing my daily commute through two bridges that were GONE.
Can you see where the frustration starts to build up? I depend on Waze being up-to-date in order to efficiently get around. Allowing editors to lock down every single street and turn and bridge and speed limit in their region and then completely ignoring anyone trying to make changes isn’t working all that well.
As to me, I’m 52 years old. I’ve been designing and writing computer code and software interfaces and using computers for longer that I would imagine most Waze super editors have been alive. I’m pretty confident that I can handle whatever editor user interface Waze could throw at me. Think about it, the only qualification you need to become an advanced editor is being smart enough to figure out that all you need to do is find an unlocked subdivision somewhere and change the all speed limits up and down over and over until you’ve racked up enough map edit points to advance to the next level.
I’ve been using Waze since Waze first came out (I have no idea how long that’s been). I’ve got over 80,000 user points and I freely made hundreds of map edits before the current random and arbitrary editor level system was put into place. I have no idea how many edit points I have, but it’s not all that many since it’s rare that I find something I need to edit that hasn’t been locked down by a Level 3 editor. Suddenly, I’m blocked from editing anything anymore and people that joined Waze a month ago and managed to get 20,000 map edits on their records in a couple of weeks (how is that even possible?? Clearly they don’t have day jobs!) are busy locking everything down and making it impossible for anyone to fix anything without devoting a huge amount of time and effort to get the attention of the right level editor, explaining the fix that’s needed, and then watching while someone else makes those edits. Why bother?
Waze’s editor level system has good intentions, I can see that and, again, I get why it’s important to maintain control. But my experience has been that the system shuts out loads of us that are just too frustrated to bother trying to contribute anymore and rewards the people that have nothing better to do than to rack up tens of thousands of map edit points and then lock down everything in their domaine so that no one else can contribute without a wave of their royal scepter.
If you’re still reading, I really do appreciate you folks taking the time to try to help. But I’ll be frank. I’ve got a husband, and day job, and a side business, and a house to maintain. Those things keep me pretty busy. I’ll never rack up tens of thousands of edits points because I don’t have the time and I don’t have the interest. But it would be really nice to be able to submit a map edit every now and then without having to take a day off of work and knuckle down and spend hours trying to get someone’s attention to eventually do it for me because I’m deemed (by Waze) unworthy of making those edits myself.
Clearly, a system that frustrates someone as patient as I am, and makes is just about impossible for anyone new to join the club and donate our time and efforts is not a good system. For me to finally just throw up my hands and say, “Fuck it! I’m out!” is NEVER a position an organization that depends on volunteers to keep them running should ever cultivate. Waze seems to think they have limitless volunteer hours available to them, but I can assure you, they will eventually burn out the handful of you that are devoted enough to personally make each and every map edit Waze needs to remain current, and then what?
Again, I appreciate your willingness to help. But I just feel like the editing system if too frustrating to bother with anymore. Eventually Waze will burn out their current bunch of volunteers and then they’ll be forced to make some changes that will allow interested people that aren’t already in the mix to join up. When that happens, maybe I’ll try again.
Thanks!
-Eric.