Seconded Tim's thanks for the response, it really does make a difference when we know someone at HQ is aware of our concerns.

From reading the public-facing parts of the Elgin site, they talk about two different data products - the Traffic Management App and the Communications Management App. The brief descriptions provided on the site seem to suggest that the TM App would be the better choice for integration with Waze (at least in terms of generating alerts sent directly to the end users without first being filtered by editors or Waze staff) whereas the behaviour of the alerts we're actually seeing sounds more like they're coming via the CM App. If this is the case, could we switch to using the TM App source instead?

Though as has been suggested previously, if the Elgin data was used to generate URs in WME, rather than alerts in the app, it then wouldn't matter so much about the variability of the data. It might still be appropriate for time-critical data to be piped directly into the app (e.g. reports of accidents), but the numerous reports of roadworks and other things that aren't time-critical to display to the end user really should just be handled via the existing WME controls.

Timbones wrote:Perhaps Elgin reports should simply say "Roadworks here (maybe)"?

As I mentioned previously, the non time-critical stuff like roadworks doesn't really need to be piped directly into the app in the first place - it's only the accident data Elgin also provides that has some real value in reaching the user ASAP without the benefit of any editor-based sanity checking. But if Waze want to persist in chucking all of the Elgin data directly into the app, then certainly cutting out the almost entirely useless descriptive text would be something of an improvement. Updating the app to allow Elgin reports to be hidden would be even better...

Timbones wrote:There seems to have been a change made recently, as the Elgin reports are now appearing on the map as generic warning triangles instead of yellow hats. You can now tap 'not there' on the popup if you're approaching one.

Most have changed, but there are still the odd one here and there using the hard hat marker - does this signify anything special about these ones?

Timbones wrote:Also, anyone who is rank 4+ and has access to the Beta editor should now be able to view Road Closure Requests. These come from the same Elgin feed, and contain information about the closure, so that they can be applied to the map. Post feedback about these here as well. Thanks.

Do these behave like URs and only appear within our editable area, and if so are there any to look at in London? Not seeing anything around here at the moment, even with all the layers turned on and all scripts turned off

Edited to add: scratch that, a bunch have suddenly appeared after reloading the WME session...

Phill87 wrote:I guess more frustrating is that the 5 markers that aren't really effecting traffic flow are very visible in the app, but the 1 marker for a major accident which is actually causing traffic issues, is very hard to see. But I guess that will improve with future app updates. fingers crossed

That's quite a good point actually - maybe if Elgin reports were rendered differently to user-generated reports (smaller/differently coloured marker, always rendered *behind* user-generated markers etc.) in the app, it'd help reduce their annoyance level a bit.

And if the app would simply let us choose whether or not we wanted them displayed in the first place, that'd be a big help... It might be close to impossible a task to automatically filter out the good quality reports from the utterly lousy quality ones, but simply allowing us to filter out any reports with an Elgin tag would be a trivial change in the app code.

Our mate Elgin now seems to be getting fed with information about abnormal load movements, which are being posted to Waze as roadworks reports...

http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t376/chriscoulson2012/Mobile%20Uploads/th_Screenshot_2016-03-20-12-34-25_zps23kxtycf.png

http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t376/chriscoulson2012/Mobile%20Uploads/th_Screenshot_2016-03-20-12-36-11_zpsiijwmf5d.png

http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t376/chriscoulson2012/Mobile%20Uploads/th_Screenshot_2016-03-20-12-42-51_zpsxxlpj39j.png

IIRC there were 45 hazard reports listed in the app at the time I took that last screengrab, of which almost half were all the various abnormal (and adnormal...) load reports you can see arranged all along the main road there...

Quite apart from littering the map with numerous almost identical reports which are, in some cases, placed just a few yards apart, there's also the somewhat more pertinent point to be made that these reports relate to a *moving* hazard and therefore isn't something that can really be marked correctly.

On top of that, the reports appear to have been set up using the wrong time schedule - whilst the report descriptions clearly show the load movement is taking place overnight, all of these report markers were cluttering up the map during the middle of the day.

Does anyone think these reports ought to be present in Waze, or can we ask for them to be filtered out?

Timbones wrote:It looks like most of the complaints are due to roadworks which are marked as "Advanced Planning" or "Planned work about to start". I've asked Waze to exclude these ones from the map, which should make a big difference.

These are best served remaining as part of the Elgin feed into the WME map problems, so provided removing them from the app doesn't affect their remaining in the MP feed then this sounds like a good move.

Where Elgin reports are useful in the app is when something occurs in realtime (accidents, closures etc) which we can't deal with in WME, provided that they don't then hang around in the app for days on end like they certainly used to do - let them behave more like hazard reports submitted by real users, timing out after 30 mins/1 hour or whatever after the last thumbs up received.

I drive for a living and I see lots of Elgin's reports on my travels. I know for a fact he doesn't drive and see these reports in the flesh as I do. I would say half of the reports Elgin makes are out of date, I remove them and then they appear again? What is the point in this activity? This doesn't help users. Also I make lots of reports to help other users, but I have noticed that Elgin then replaces my reports with his?

So whats meant to happen with these reports cluttering the map
[Elgin] Road closure for bridge inspection. Emergency access will be maintained at all times.
Baldersby To Skipton Bridge
Street: A61 Baldersby To Skipton Bridge
From: Thu Dec 15 2016, 09:30
To: Thu Dec 15 2016, 15:30
Permalink

Thanks for the info, I think in some cases there is just far to many to keep referring but I will PM people when I can