jm6087 wrote:

Mvan231 wrote:Marking a segment as "closed" in the app is only going to modify your personal app's routing behavior.

This is not 100% accurate. Marking a segment as "closed" in the app will close the road depending on the trust level of the reporter OR if enough drivers report the same segment closed in a short time frame.

titchy_ wrote:

scubbladub wrote:Thanks for the reply - I think I see the flaw...

I followed your instructions and got to a screen where it looks like Waze expects a driver to tell the system which road is closed:-

https://nsa37.casimages.com/img/2016/01 ... 243066.png

This is what Waze is askeing a driver to report, at a moment in time when they're suddenly having to replan their journey, and Waze is actively redirecting them back toward the road they have just discovered is closed - a point of relatively high stress.

Look how close those "closure" symbols are!

Does anyone wonder why nobody's reporting road closures when it's been made so awkward by Waze?!

What should happen is the moment a driver deviates from the route Waze is suggesting, Waze asks for the reason for the deviation.

"Mistake" can be top, and just triggers Waze to recalculate in the way it currently does - getting the user back on to the old route asap.

"Road Closure" reports the road closed and reroutes allowing for a default closure of the road in question to the next major junction.

AT least it could be made a toggle-able option for the people like me who'd want this.

I don't think you've thought this through fully. People who use any sort of satellite navigation deviate from routes all the time. Maybe because they know better, change their mind, a whole host of reasons. Suggesting we have to tell Waze why we've deviated each time is unnecessary and distracting.

Also setting a road closure requires much more information than sight alone. How long is it closed for and what is the reason? You may not have a good idea of this if you just spot something along your route. Providing inaccurate information can be just as unhelpful.

Until we live in a world where law enforcement and local government take responsibility for road closures in satellite navigation apps, the system is never going to be perfect, in any app.

titchy_ wrote:There is a difference between an alert for a pothole in the road or a police trap which act as a warning compared to a road closure which will alter the route. If you see a 'road closed' sign and report it without any further investigation, how can you be sure that in 10 minutes time it won't be cleared and the road re-opened?

Just because I don't agree with your suggestion doesn't mean I am against any criticism of Waze. I have given plenty myself and there are certainly many improvements that can be made.

jm6087 wrote:

scubbladub wrote:

titchy_ wrote:There is a difference between an alert for a pothole in the road or a police trap which act as a warning compared to a road closure which will alter the route. If you see a 'road closed' sign and report it without any further investigation, how can you be sure that in 10 minutes time it won't be cleared and the road re-opened?

Just because I don't agree with your suggestion doesn't mean I am against any criticism of Waze. I have given plenty myself and there are certainly many improvements that can be made.

Good stuff. Glad to hear it.

It is a shame that the implementation of road closure reporting will remain as woeful as it is though, because of some misplaced concern about how intrusive one possible optional solution might be.

In its current state it is jarringly dysfunctional.

Your counterpoints miss the fact that the option to report closures is already built in. My complaint is that its functionality is so cumbersome that it is not getting used.

As I say, an optional feature, where, if you deviate from the route, a button pops up with some of the most likely causes, with "Road Closed" being one of them, would make the feature work much better and generate more user-submitted road status info.

One thing is that your example of the multitude of closure arrows to choose from would be the exception to the rule. The vast majority of the closure reported would only have a couple arrows to choose from.

That said, one option (and truthfully the best option) would be to work with your local edits in the chat platform to report closures. This would give you a chance to report the closure when it is safe to do so and allow for a more detailed and accurate closure that will stick better than in-app closures.

Many times I have pulled off to a gas station and got on our regional Discord Chat platform and asked one of our editors to close a road that I just saw was closed. I could even tell them that it was for a crash or construction and that I would anticipate it be a couple hours or days, etc.

The biggest issue I have with the in-app closures is that I truly think that most drivers are reporting that there is a single lane closure and that is not what the closure tool is actually designed for. It is supposed to be for a complete closure that you can't travel in a single or both directions down a road. If you can travel down the road, just reduced lanes (or even a single lane that has a pilot truck to lead you) then it should not be closed in the app.

titchy_ wrote: Are you aware how roads are made up in Waze? I'm asking because I don't know whether you're a user or an editor. Do you know that they are made up of segments? In other words, Main St could be made up of dozens of segments usually depending on the number of roads connected to it.

Let's imagine Waze gave you a route to turn left onto Main St and then the 2nd right onto Station Rd. You notice that Main St is blocked at its origin and you therefore (using your suggestion) mark the road as closed and then take an alternate route. Waze then marks the first two segments before the right turn onto Station Rd as closed. What perhaps you don't realise is that the road will be open to anyone using it beyond Station Rd.

Or alternatively, let's say you mark the road as closed and Waze closes the entirety of Main St. However, in reality only the entrance to Main St is closed due to a localised mains water leak. Yet you have gone and closed the entire road and everyone else has been unnecessarily diverted around it.

My point is that you need to know a little bit more about why a road is closed and to what extent than just driving past it.

And yes I am aware you can set closures within the app at present and no I don't particularly agree with it.

Lastly, this conversation isn't achieving anything. These forums are rarely visited by Waze staff and this is not the official place for requesting new features or improvements. You can keep getting annoyed that Waze continues to give you a route for a closed road that it is not aware of, or you can do something constructive with your time and request that this road is closed by the methods already suggested to you.

I won't be wasting any more time on this thread.

jm6087 wrote:

scubbladub wrote:The simplest way for Waze to handle this, and the way that is inline with everything else,... would be for it to close off the first segment, and re-divert, and then if users start reporting the second segment closed, mark that up, etc etc.

This is exactly how Waze works. Based on the trust level of an app user (based of a variety of factors), a person reports a segment closed in the app, it only closes off the first segment in one direction. If there is a second segment (or opposite direction) to close, it won't close that off unless someone reports it as closed as well.

If the trust level of the app user is not high enough, it will take multiple people reporting the same closure for the closure to stick in the app. This is to prevent people from accidentally or purposely closing roads that are not truly closed.

jm6087 wrote:

scubbladub wrote:When a user has toggled the option, and they are driving along a preset route, and divert, an unobtrusive "why did you divert" button pops up - and "road closed" is a ready option.

The issue with only offering the "closure" option if you divert is that people will and do report roads that are closed that are not part of the pre-determined route. They are sitting at a light and see that the road to the left is completely torn up and not closed in the app. They report it without ever diverting. If enough app users pass through that same light and notice it is not closed in the app and report it, it will close. No one has diverted from their original route. With your method, no one would be able to report the closure.

Another problem is that your "unobtrusive" pop up could get very obtrusive if you are driving down a highway that is under construction and has been moved far enough over that your app thinks you have left the pre-determined route even though you haven't.

Also, maybe you have come up on a closed road and detour, following the detour is close enough that the app does not realize you have actually left your pre-determined route. Now you can't report it.

Using your toggle method, if more than one of these scenarios happens in a single trip, you will need to toggle your settings in the middle of the drive which will be complained about as well. And you wouldn't know prior to the trip which "toggle" you need to have set.

There are times that the arrows can be difficult but I believe that it is the best system for the way Waze works. I just wish that the arrows were spread apart more to make it easier to choose the one you actually want.