Most of the time I report a closure, I’m reporting one on a street going off to the side of where I’m driving. I used to be able to tap closure, and tap an arrow pointing to the right or to the left. At some point that ability was removed. I can now only report a closure if it’s directly in front of me on the route I’m driving. Why was this changed? Is there some other way that I can report a closure that’s next to me instead of in front of me? You just removed a massive way that a lot of us kept things up to date.
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I’ve had the same experience. Tried to report a closure on a street adjacent to my route, but the arrows weren’t there as I expected. There was no warning of the change in the user interface (that I can recall). And even worse, when I didn’t tap anything on the screen, the report auto-sent after only a few seconds, reporting the wrong segment closed!
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Yeah, this change was mentioned to coordinators back in Jan. We expressed concern for the lack of options for closing adjacent streets along the route.
Staff said they would make any changes “post-launch” of the experiment and subsequent changes that followed. Of course, we all know that means any changes we want will most likely never happen. 
The desire from staff was to simplify the reporting process for most Wazers.
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Major Fail imho. Waze is usually pretty good about having closure sin on main streets. I’d guess 95% of the closures I’d report in the app were ones on cross streets. Now I can’t report those at all. They should have kept an “Advanced Mode” button so we could change back to the old interface and report things that weren’t right in front of us.
I had to report a closures on a round-about the other day. I couldn’t even do it as I was approaching the Roundabout. I had to wait until I was in it, and had passed the last turn before the closure and then tap the report icon in the 3 second window before I drove past the one that was closed.
It’s just bad all around. I love when Updated things remove the features that people actually used. Oh well.
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Admittedly, the old closure reporting mechanism was pretty bad, but I’m not sure this is any better.
With the auto-closure features, I think returning the old functionality would be better for the stated reasons. What it doesn’t address is in-car closures.
What did you think was bad about the old closure reporting process?
This might be the first time I’ve ever used the Waze help forum. (Maybe not but if I have before I don’t remember it.) I came here looking for the solution to this exact problem but apparently there isn’t one? I cannot figure out why anyone would have thought this was a good idea. As has been stated here close to every closure I ever reported was one adjacent to me not directly in front of me. Several times now when I’ve tried to report one the app “auto-reports” whatever space is directly in front of me that is an open roadway. … I’m assuming this same regression in performance is the same reason I can’t scroll a few miles ahead to report a closure I know exists? And is this also what’s causing the problem of not being able to report long-term closures? … I live on a small “dirt” road off a main artery. There is a section of the artery extending about two-miles that will be closed to ALL traffic in one direction until November of 2026. Meaning, from the first day I reported it several months ago until November 2026 that artery is one-way only. Every single day for months when I leave for work I tell Waze via the app that the artery is closed facing that direction. Later that same day, without fail, Waze tries to send me down that road again, I tell it again. (Of course I can no longer pre-emptively tell it the road is closed, I have to drive all the way to the big all but permanently erected road closed barricades, tell it again, then be re-routed. I know it’s closed, I do this as a favor to other drivers.) Then the next morning, again Waze tries to send me down it. … My dirt road is connected to two others that lead to the same artery. I tell Waze the first intersection is closed. The app doesn’t allow me to pre-emptively tell it the next one is closed, so it sends me there. I go (knowing it’s also closed but as a favor to others) and report that one closed. Then go to the third that I know is closed but Waze doesn’t remember me telling it and report that one, Then take the alternate route I know only because I’ve lived there 40 years. … A few hours later, Waze will try and send me down the closed road again. … Is the problem me not sending the reports properly or is this actually the way this app works now?
For long term closures, submit a map issue for the local editing community to add a long term closure. It’s best if you already have information on the extent (which roads/intersections) and how long it will be closed.
What area is this for?
Sure. If I ever remembered to do that after driving past a closure it wouldn’t be that bad. Reporting it as I drove past it was far more reliable. It was just a dumb decision to remove functionality from the app that lots of people used. I haven’t reported a closure since because I can’t do it in the app and I never remember to do it hours later when I finally get home.
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I did. And thank you.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s less than helpful that the app no longer allows long term closure reporting. … How does it decide when to “reopen” a reported closure? Does it only remember the closure I reported until I reach my destination? … In the example I was giving, I could go to the grocery store, tell the app the road was closed on my way there, then on my way back within an hour it’d try and send me down the same closed road again.
To backtrack to my initial question I had when I found this one… Why can’t I report a closures that aren’t directly in front of me any more?
Does anyone know why I can’t scroll ahead and tell Waze something is closed that I know is closed before reaching it? … The closure I was referring to can add about 15 minutes to a trip if a driver goes all the way to the closure point. … Why can we no longer pan ahead and tell Waze there’s a closure on our route we know is there long before reaching it?
There’s a drawbridge that I encounter sometimes that can take an hour to open and close again. From a mile or more away I can see it and tell if it’s starting to open (lights flashing or whatever). Or sometimes I can see a mast (large ship) approaching that I know is going to cause it to open. It used to be I could pan ahead, tell Waze the road was closed, click the “one hour” duration, and it’d steer people around it. Now it has to be directly in front of me for me to say it’s closed and by then it’s too late, you just have to wait.
Same scenario with trains. From the freeway I can see there is a long train crossing my route that could hold me up for seemingly ever. But because there’s an off-ramp and a couple of turns before it’s directly in front of me I can’t tell Waze the road is blocked to be given a better route until it’s directly in front of me.
Sorry… I guess Karl answered that… Waze staff thought most users were too stupid to keep it the way it was. Essentially, they fixed something that wasn’t broken.
Closures can reopen after a period of time, much like other user reports will time out. The length of time they are on the map can be extended by others reporting the same issue. At the same time, if someone drives through the reported closure the app uses that to determine it is now open.
Developers made this change quite some time ago. If you have an active route, you can only report a closure along that route. If you do not have a route, you can report closures on specific turns as you did before.
I do not know when they removed the option to add the duration.
Oh. So if I cancel my route I can then report closures anywhere? That’s kind of annoying but I’ll try it next time I come across one.
“If you have an active route, you can only report a closure along that route.” - That’s not the recent experiences I’ve had. It only allows me to report a closure that is directly/immediately in front of me. I can no longer pan to a point further into my route that I know is closed and report that closure.
I don’t believe it has ever been possible to pan to a point further into a route and report it closed.
Your experience is the more clear description of the current behavior of the feature. And I’m with John, I have never been able to add a closure more than a junction or so ahead of my location.
I’ve done it several times. But it could have been years ago for all I know. I’ve been using the app since about 2010.
I did this on 6/10/25. On 6/16/25 I received an email saying a “senior editor” (you coincidentally) said that I reported the closure incorrectly but a closure had been implemented. However, it hasn’t. … Everyday from then up until as recently as today (7/1/25) Waze tries to make me turn WB/NB onto a road that will be closed to traffic going that direction for months (as residents we were told November 2026 is the projection). There are three intersections the road I live on connects to that are affected. Today Waze tried to send me to each of them so the closure you said was implemented apparently didn’t take.
It’s especially frustrating when I try to use the “leave later” feature only to leave at the time Waze suggested to then find out it calculated that travel time thinking the road (previously reported as closed several times) was open rather than calculating the 10 - 20 minute detour. … This morning I was late to a court appearance as a result, luckily I was a witness rather than a defendant.
On my way home later Waze tried to send me down the closed road again. (The same one I had reported closed a couple of hours prior.) … It has done so no less than every single day that I’ve used the app since this long term project started.
I think at this point my concern though, in addition to the panning ahead to report a closure that apparently was a deliberate, albeit flawed, design change, is how to get Waze to recognize the long term closure for longer than a few minutes.