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Post by briandb1222
Atlas85 wrote:I don’t know where Ajaydkulkarni is from, but most of the crossings here are WAY TOO complicated to also add traffic lights. This would destroy cartouche, as this would mess up complete sections and crossings. Many of our junctions/crossroads have over 15 traffic lights, and than also separate traffic lights for buses or tram etc. Taking a left or right turn is also not influenced by whether there are or aren’t any traffic lights present. You have to make the turn anyway.
It would not destroy...all intersections are the same. You can either turn left or right, sometimes though, there is the odd intersection, but that's not very often, and it wouldn't mess anything up. The only difference is, the voice routing would go "At the next traffic light, turn left.' Here in the USA, we typically have 4 lights, sometimes 5...sometimes.

I don't know why you would want to add 15 traffic lights to an intersection anyways. You'd just need one light per intersection and it would apply to all streets that connect (or even, you could be able to set which streets the light doesn't effect).

I've seen this done to other GPS units, and it works, (except the voice routing doesn't mention the light...it was there so you would know it was there.

Voice routing that includes traffic lights would simplify things (and even if they did stop signs as well), and get you to destination faster. Less time you spend looking at those hard-to-see street signs, and its easy to count traffic lights and stop signs.
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Post by briandb1222
fvwazing wrote:For all that it's worth: Waze recognizes TL right now. Stopping, waiting near a junction, different waitingtimes for going in different directions. What more do you need? Ok, you do not hear directions like "at the next trafficlight, go right" but that would not justify the extra trouble, in my opinion.
Not really. The traffic jam reported at an intersection may not be always due to a traffic light. Could have been traffic due to a wreck, or cops arresting someone. A traffic jam at an intersection may not automatically register to the user as a traffic light, and, traffic data is reflected by previous users that have taken that route recently, so it is not very accurate.
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Post by briandb1222
Adding traffic lights is beneficial, for one, the Wazer will know which intersection has lights at (just a heads up, yeah.) Also, some people DO give directions by traffic lights. Maybe the destination isn't found on Waze, but someone tells the Wazer to go through Unicorn Lane and Shut the H Up Blvd. Well, guess what, it is safer to see if those two streets are traffic light controlled, then for the Wazer to be looking at his GPS the whole time trying to find the streets that person gave him. Now, finding those two streets, and the Wazer sees they are traffic controlled, he would now know to pass two lights before turning into his destination...he would not have to look at his GPS so much to be sure he is on track.

My point? Be sure you know where you are going first. GPS is only there to guide you, not drive for you. Also, what if traffic jam is clear even though GPS shows it is still there? Its re-routing could have made you take longer. You are playing 50/50 by going fully by the GPS. I notice this a lot in residential areas, where it reports a avg speed of 0 mph, when in fact there is no traffic...at all.
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Post by calvinrules
traffic lights are needed on waze for turn purposes. Waze accounts for traffic lights if your just going straight through the intersection. This is because of average speed includes people waiting at stop lights from time to time. But this does not account for making a left turn (for you brits, right turns) at the stop light. That needs to be a much heavier cost of a penalty (yes, I have seen red lights go longer than a minute!). Right turns may need a very small penalty.
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Post by calvinrules
There is a different traffic flow for people making turns at stop signs and traffic lights. you can find yourself wasting more time at a traffic light turn than a stop sign and turning. Waze currently does not calculate that in, and that can change and make routes more efficient.

In block/urban cities, for the most part average speed is roughly the same for most streets and intersection, but make a turn can have drastic different wait times. This is where identifying traffic lights will help! Once that is established, waze can then choose to recalculate people who make turns on these intersections and establish a separate speed average for people make a right or left turn.
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Post by camcamnz
I tend to agree about adding traffic lights for the exact reason everyone is saying it wont work.
Namely H, # and all other name of varieties of intersections, all of which are usually controlled by lights.
Waze currently has a landmark type for 'junction' but as far as I know this exhibits no special behavior, it would be great to be able to draw a 'box' for the intersection and set it as a set of traffic lights.
This way there would only be one junction/node (instead of the 4+) and all roads could be accurately drawn going in and out of the 'box' without worrying about free turns etc.
All GPS tracks inside this box would be effectively ignored, as long as the tracks enter the box on a valid road, and leave it on another valid road, rather than the roads being moved towards the turn that most users take etc.

The voice navigation would be an excellent bonus, and in regards to it being a nuisance because it is out of date, isn't the whole point of waze to basically have the most up to date maps and routing information around?

On a side note, I think that this would have to be a pre-cursor to any sort of lane guidance if they introduce it at any stage, as you would have to have a way to define which lanes can drive in which direction at the lights.
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Post by DavidRa
I believe it's about converting intersections to traffic lights, much as we do for roundabouts. This will improve voice routing, among other things.
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Post by DavidRa
Allow me to explain why I thought it could help with navigation.

Have a look at this map (obviously incomplete):

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You're driving south on "Seven Hills Rd" and intending to continue without turning off - though not being a local, you don't know that yet. Leabons Rd intersection is actually a set of traffic lights (not the roundabout - old aerial shots). As you curve left, right at the top of the map, you're told "In 800m, at the roundabout, continue straight."

Frankly a set of lights is of more importance than a plain intersection - I'd prefer to be told of the lights rather than the roundabout far beyond them. A non-local needs to hear "In 200m, at the traffic lights, continue straight" followed shortly thereafter by "In 200m, at the roundabout, continue straight".

Also consider "in 200m turn left" - I'm not sure about other countries, but many streets in Australian capitals have a parallel laneway adjacent the street - it serves for loading docks and delivery points for those buildings. So given this layout (the plus is a plain junction, the asterisk is lights):

Code: Select all

             | |
             | |
=============+=*
--> travel --^
The annotation "at the traffic lights" clarifies whether the main street or the laneway is required. Note that the difference between the laneway and the street could be as little as 25m (75 ft). Hardly enough for an ordinary person to differentiate from 200m away.

Finally, this also may make it easier to have navigation rules such as "avoid traffic lights" or "prefer traffic lights to unmanaged intersections".
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Post by fvbommel
bgodette wrote:However I agree with Jason in that it would be really helpful if we could mark certain turns as "legal, but a really bad idea" as a hint to the routing server. With enough historical data, this isn't a problem, but there's a catch-22 in that the majority of users have more than air filling the space between their ears and will not take a clearly bad route and Waze will take a very long time collecting that data.
Well, if users fairly consistently ignore Waze's suggestion to take a certain turn (optionally: at a certain time of day), shouldn't that also be pretty interesting data? :)
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Post by fvwazing
For all that it's worth: Waze recognizes TL right now. Stopping, waiting near a junction, different waitingtimes for going in different directions. What more do you need? Ok, you do not hear directions like "at the next trafficlight, go right" but that would not justify the extra trouble, in my opinion.
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