Road closures and diversions

Map Editors Community France Closures for works
1

Hello,

The Dordogne Department, as the manager of the departmental road network, issues traffic orders to close roads during construction work. It is our responsibility, for the safety of road users, to organize detours adapted to the network. We have created a data feed referencing the closed roads, but we are unable to attach the detour routes to it. However, these detours, managed by the department, direct users toward roads intended for this type of traffic. We have noticed that more and more routes automatically suggested by the Waze application do not take the authorized detours into account and lead vehicles onto roads unsuitable for heavy traffic, which sometimes causes issues in certain villages. Would it be possible to integrate recommended routes, or even the detour paths, into our feed in order to correctly inform users of the detour actually implemented by the road manager? Thank you in advance for advising us on the procedure to follow in the Waze application/Waze Partner Hub to provide these routes as outlined in our traffic orders. Kind regards

2

Hello CD_24,
Welcome to the Waze Forum.

To my knowledge, it isn’t really possible to create detour routes since they are managed by the Waze algorithm (independently of map editors).

The solution would have been to close secondary roads where the algorithm would prefer to route traffic, however, that would mean closing roads to other Wazers who shouldn’t have been affected.

It seems that you are Partners; I am forwarding your message to the partner editors / coordinators who have better knowledge and might be able to guide you better on this subject (if possible).

See you soon,
Have a great week!

–
@InstantT , would you happen to have any information on this?

3

Thanks @MisterLogik

@CD_24 received this response from @drslump34 via email:

Thank you for your message.

The point you raise is perfectly understandable from a road manager’s perspective: when a decree mandates a closure, it usually also provides for an official detour, designed according to criteria for safety, size, capacity, and network suitability.

In Waze, however, the operating principle is different. When a road is declared closed, it is excluded from route calculation during the relevant period. On the other hand, it is not possible to configure a single official detour that the application would then impose on all users.

The reason is linked to the very way navigation works. Each user starts from a different point, travels to a different destination, with different travel needs. A local user who needs to bypass a closure for a few kilometers, a driver from outside the sector crossing the department, or a long-distance transit vehicle will not have the same relevant route.

Waze therefore does not just look for a detour right at the location of the closed road. The calculator evaluates the route upstream, based on origin, destination, traffic, open roads, network hierarchy, and known restrictions. For a local trip, some secondary roads may be taken into account. For a longer-distance trip, the application may instead avoid the affected area altogether, much further upstream.

The detours listed in decrees are therefore useful and consistent within a general road management logic, but they do not necessarily correspond to all individual use cases that Waze must handle.

The main lever, on the Waze side, remains the quality of map data: closures must be correctly integrated, and road types, traffic restrictions, regulatory prohibitions, or access limitations must best reflect the reality on the ground. This categorization is specifically established in consistency with available official data, notably to distinguish major thoroughfares from more local roads.

In summary: Waze can certainly take closed roads into account, but does not allow for a single detour route to be imposed. The application contextualizes each driver’s route according to their actual travel needs, while relying on mapping, network hierarchy, known restrictions, and traffic conditions.

Kind regards,