Map Update Requests - Rapidly evolving weather events & impacts on local and interstate traffic

Map Editors Community Australia Unlock / Update / Closure Requests
1

Hey guys,

I need a hand to work out how to add updates from QLD TMR/Traffic Updates from Local and State Government

  • Multiple road closures
  • River crossings
  • Roadworks
  • Accidents

Need the live data added to maps for decision making & planning purposes
North/Far North Queensland

This is automatic in Brisbane from the TMR website to Waze however I do not see this active here in North/Far North QLD other than via user reports

Cheers

2

Hi belle8585

Could you please provide some more information on what is missing? Those closures and events visible on QldTraffic should be in Waze. This is an automated feed from TMR and has been working in FNQ.

Local government closures are not always included in this feed and are then added by volunteer editors as we become aware of them. For this to be automated they would need to be added to the TMR feed (some are) or the council would need to become a Waze Partner and add their own feed.

Regards
ag

3

Drove in via Charters Towers yesterday - nil alerts listed on the Waze app despite ongoing watch & act orders issued by TMR & Local DDMG via Council etc

TMR QLD app showed incidents on my route before and after travel

With the rapidly changing conditions here in Townsville, it would be great if this could be validated/verified as functioning as expected

Unfortunately was driving solo so couldnā€™t capture screenshots across all 3 apps (google maps/QLD traffic/Waze) to show the missing data

4

I also have the same question. Iā€™m trying to figure out how to get live traffic and road updates for North and Far North Queensland directly from the TMR or other government sources. Like you, I can see that Brisbane seems to automatically feed closures, accidents, and roadworks into Waze, but up here it seems to rely almost entirely on user reports, which isnā€™t very reliable for planning purposes.

Iā€™ve been looking for a way to integrate official feeds for road closures, river crossings, and accidents into maps or navigation tools, but havenā€™t had much luck. It almost feels like the difference between real-time data and those feel-good ā€œSunday snow day quotesā€ you see online comforting, but not exactly something youā€™d rely on when making practical decisions. If anyone has a method to automatically pull live TMR updates for this region or even a workaround using RSS feeds or APIs Iā€™d really appreciate knowing how to set it up.

5

hey hey

I love this topic as thereā€™s no easy way to say thisā€¦

There is currently no way to accurately pull this data throughā€¦ :tired_face: user reports & socials are the best option and WAZE should add a disclaimer stating this for this region

The TMR app has up to 48 hours lag, the TMR website via browser is much quicker to add the change/update however still unreliable. They canā€™t even get their SMS notification system right, I got trapped on the Kuranda range for 1.5 hours, no sms was sent by them to those of us subscribed for traffic updates

TMR (and the like) are unreliable being that

a) weather conditions and therefore road conditions change so quickly

b) TMR/local council workers arenā€™t always available, cannot access or arenā€™t aware of the changes to report them

c) vehicle type vs road type arent indictated (eg a large b-double truck may cross some water on the road but a small sedan/hatchback would get swept away

d) Waze doesnā€™t seem to display a road closure for long on the site, especially during the crazy weather events with widespread flooding, causing many to drive down dangerous ā€˜back roadsā€™ that had flooded long before the main road did

In a world where we know not to trust social media, believe me, itā€™s the best most accurate source of truth.

NQ & FNQ locals are passionate about providing and receiving accurate information about travel up these ways, my advice is, heed it, and not Waze, other maps or TMR data

Good luck :folded_hands:

6

Hi both @world_xqo56lpi and @belle8585 ,

I can confirm we have an automated feed in data from QldTraffic into Waze even for FNQ. Data like full road closures in QldTraffic is fed into Waze, however not all other data sets shown on QldTraffic is fed into Waze. The rest of the reports are definitely relied upon user reports. If you believe there is a data error in QldTraffic, you can contact them directly at 13 19 40 for 24/7 support. Occasionally, Waze can have data fed in to the wrong road or wrong closure timeframe. In these cases, you can contact volunteer map editors like myself via this forum (faster response) or a Waze map issue report.

Please note, Waze has always been a crowd sourced navigation app, therefore no disclaimer is required. Waze staff continually work on ways to leverage publicly available data to enhance driver experience.

If either of you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to reply and I can help as best I can.

Cheers

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