FAQ for Colorado/Waze in general?

[CrazyInDenverDave]

I have a question regarding finding a list of all map issues I have currently outstanding but my bigger question relates to if there is a frequently asked questions list? I don't want to keep asking stuff that already comes up but maybe difficult to search for.

[chucksways]

Thanks for reaching out. All issues are reported anonymously. As such there is no way to know what issues are yours.

In CO, the volunteer editors respond to every map update request within a day, in general. If the issue needs additional information to fix it, we reply to the report with our questions. You should receive an email with our reply. You should also see the reply in the app inbox. If we don't get a response, we send a reminder. If we still don't get a response after a week of the report being opened, we will close it.

Right now there are about 40 reports opened within the last week in CO. Again, there is no way to tell if any are yours. If you reported something more than a week ago, it has been closed as either solved or problem not identified.

If you have a specific issue you want to ask about, just reply here with the detailed location and a description of the issue. Make sure to include the destination name or address entered in the app if it was a routing issue. One of the volunteers will check it out.

To your question about a FAQ, this forum is the list of questions asked and answers provided.

Please let us know if we can help.

Thanks,
Chuck

[CrazyInDenverDave]

Hey Chuck,
So I opened five yesterday and it's normal for me to create ~10 a week as I am a rideshare driver and drive close to full time. Recently it has been a dual edged sword with waze routing me around stop lights but sometimes sending me to difficult (and or terrifying) intersections. Should I keep reporting these intersections (eg near Chambers and 6th yesterday) or just keep more on my toes about waze's routing logic? Also is there a preference for how I should report them, or just mark them as general map issues?

Thanks,
Dave

[chucksways]

For intersections where uncontrolled left turns are dangerous during certain hours, please continue to report them. Waze factors the delay into route calculations, but doesn't have any way to know that you might be crossing three or four lanes of traffic since we don't map individual lanes.

For those intersections that seem slow, but safe, there is no need to report those. People are surprised at how much time they waste sitting at traffic lights when they actually time it. Waze factors the delays into the route calculation.

The category you choose for reporting doesn't matter if you put a comment in the report letting us know what the issue was or you reply to our questions. One thing to note is that you should press report at the point of the issue. Waze will save the location so you can add the comment when it's safe. If you wait to press report until it's safe, we have no idea where the issue was. I've had a report dropped in Denver for an issue in Seattle. Not helpful.

All reports are anonymous so we never know who opened the report and we never know the destination. Many times we don't get your Waze route or GPS track. When we do, we only get a couple of blocks of it. That is why it's important to hit the report button at the problem location. In most cases we need the destination name or address to figure out the issue. Keep that in mind when reporting issues.

One unrelated thing to note is that either the Lyft or Uber driver app provides GPS coordinates to Waze app. Sorry I can't remember which one. Whichever it is, Waze will route to those coordinates regardless of what address or business is shown in the display. Frequently, those coordinates are wrong. Rideshare drivers get annoyed with Waze when it's the rideshare app causing it.

Thank you for helping to make the Waze experience better for everyone.

Chuck

[CrazyInDenverDave]

It's Lyft that relies on GPS coordinates which can be more than a bit frustrating as driver. Waze normally will tell me if a destination is on the right or left of the road but through Lyft driver, the best it will do is tell me I have arrived.

I may have to close issues with addresses because of the GPS thing. Often I have a record of the destination address but sometimes they are deeply flawed (eg "Building I of Some Apartment complex").

[chucksways]

Since I don't know how the Lyft/Uber driver apps work, I'll share some general guidance that I send to Wazers. Not sure if it's even possible for you to use this. The saved location part will not apply.

When searching in Waze, ignore all search suggestions as you type. Press search, and choose the destination from the search results. That forces Waze to use the latest info. If you had this saved as home, work, or favorite or you chose it from your search history, you must delete it then search as described and re-save it. Search suggestions are often from third party sources with wrong locations.

For best results, search for businesses by name and residences by address. You will usually get routed to the front door of a business when searching by name. Searching for a business by address may say you have arrived when you're out on the named street, even if you're on the wrong side of a median.

One other note that may be of interest. Waze does not yet support multiple buildings sharing a single address. For individuals, they can save a favorite location, but that clearly doesn't help you. If places have a commonly known name (even if weird), we can add those to the map.

Thanks,
Chuck