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"Ghost traffic jams"

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Hi everybody,
We're currently investigating all the "ghost" traffic jams which are automatically generated by the system when stopping at gas stations / parking.
To do that, it would be tremendously helpful if you could send us some recent examples of such scenarios.

I'm sure that many of you have posted about this problem before but recent examples with the following details would really help us:
1) Time (date+hour) including timezone
2) User name
3) segment id / permalink
4) If you can get a screenshot - that would be great.. (optional)
5) Any additional info which seems relevant

Please note that we need examples of ghost traffic jams caused by your driving session and not those created by others.
If you have a lead, please post it here and we'll do our best to improve this aspect :)

Thank you very very much :)
shirli

POSTER_ID:94099

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Re: "Ghost traffic jams"

Post by AlanOfTheBerg
Does this include the ghost traffic jams which have been well-documented here which occur in the middle of the night when there are no wazers driving around at all?
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Re: "Ghost traffic jams"

Post by AlanOfTheBerg
I am frequently seeing, in the wee morning hours now, jams on my local roadways. There are no wazers around that I can see, yet I often get a jam along segments of a local highway which runs through town as well as some side streets. This appears to be highly suspicious and incorrect, just as has been reported previously after middle-of-the-night fake traffic jams.
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Re: "Ghost traffic jams"

Post by AlanOfTheBerg
They decided against a pause mode and the automated traffic jams, assuming they are working 100% correctly; big assumption I know :), are better for the end user, safer, and legal. Even touching your screen when stopped on the side of the road, not even in traffic, is illegal in some places, and likely more to come.
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Re: "Ghost traffic jams"

Post by AlanOfTheBerg
phil_whiteboy wrote:I am willing to state for the record, it is impossible to automate accurate traffic reporting based on a single device as there is not enough known information. There are too many variables and it would require reporting from multiple sources.

Do they track GPS with a single satellite? See my point? I know you don't want to accept it, but it doesn't change the physics / facts of the matter. Just give it up, let it go... :)
The physics of triangulation are wildly dissimilar to traffic flow, but your point about accurate traffic reporting with a single device is correct and I agree with it.
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Re: "Ghost traffic jams"

Post by AndyPoms
mouseRider wrote:I was gathering information today on a stretch of road that I suspected had errors on the Waze map. While doing that, I caused a "Ghost traffic jam" by traveling 15 mph on a 25 mph road, it came up red. On my second lap, I deliberately did 25 mph and managed to improve the "jam" to 20 mph and turned it yellow.

Is this normal behavior? (5mph less than the posted limit showing yellow). I do have a screen grab and other data if this is significant for this exercise.
Waze doesn't know the speed limit, just the average speed in which people drive on that road. They break that data down into 10-15 minute intervals. So if someone regularly drives that road 10mph over the speed limit at the time you went through, you would have been seen as going at 20mph under the average & in a jam...
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Re: "Ghost traffic jams"

Post by autourdupc
I was driving on a highway in France.
No traffic jam, some sporadic other cars on the highway.
No previous accident on the road, nothing that could slow the traffic.

I was driving at 131 km/h, and Waze said that the average speed was 58 km/h.

It was on april 10th, 9h44 french time
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Re: "Ghost traffic jams"

Post by autourdupc
foxitrot wrote:
Autourdupc wrote:I was driving at 131 km/h, and Waze said that the average speed was 58 km/h.
What about the wazer in front of you? May have caused it as well...
Halas not !
Look at the arrows... They are in the same way as me !
And in front of me, there was nothing... Maybe some sporadic cars on this beautifull 2 ways on each sides of this highway !
Sure, the yellow colour and the average speed given by Waze was not good in this location ; and I was so surprising that I took time to get a screenshot about this issue !

This is not the first time I can see ghost traffic on Waze, but it is the first time I took a screenshot of it !
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Re: "Ghost traffic jams"

Post by autourdupc
fvwazing wrote:
foxitrot wrote:
Autourdupc wrote:I was driving at 131 km/h, and Waze said that the average speed was 58 km/h.
What about the wazer in front of you? May have caused it as well...
...then the jam would have disappeared after driving 1-2 km into the segment. Did it?
The jam was already present before I enter the segment... I saw it far away from me because the zoom was out !
All the time I was on the segment, the little tab indicating the speed average disapeared in the bottom of the screen then reapeared in front of me.
This changed when I entered the new segment.
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Re: "Ghost traffic jams"

Post by autourdupc
mouseRider wrote:I was gathering information today on a stretch of road that I suspected had errors on the Waze map. While doing that, I caused a "Ghost traffic jam" by traveling 15 mph on a 25 mph road, it came up red. On my second lap, I deliberately did 25 mph and managed to improve the "jam" to 20 mph and turned it yellow.

Is this normal behavior? (5mph less than the posted limit showing yellow). I do have a screen grab and other data if this is significant for this exercise.
Very strange... I had the total opposite !
I was driving at 10 km/h on a road limited up to 90 km/h. I was alone. I never created traffic jam.
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Re: "Ghost traffic jams"

Post by calcnerd
I always leave Waze on when in drive thru lines, etc but make sure when Waze says something along the lines of "we detected you've slowed down...are you in traffic?" I always click 'no'. Is this not the solution to that problem?
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