It's all about the math. If Waze doesn't have the data about that specific time of day taking longer transit the segments in question, then if no one takes it, it won't know. Just having 1 side of the data isn't enough.

Most of the Waze speed data is stored in 10-15 minute chunks (i.e. the speed/turn data used at 9:03am is not the same data used at 1:42pm).

I have been repeatedly taking the slightly longer route in early morning peak traffic, but Waze keeps pointing me down a specific road which I know will take long to try cross. The shorter route option would definatly use this same road. Just wondering if there is a way to "nudge" the priorities a bit. In the middle of the day with low traffic, that route with the crossing would probably be fine.

But maybe I should try taking the suggested route and sit and wait a while, maybe Waze will then learn from it. I'm willing to try it. Thanks guys.

And it seems now that this functionality has made it to Waze. Very nice. We just need it to roll out worldwide now.

Danie2 wrote:But maybe I should try taking the suggested route and sit and wait a while, maybe Waze will then learn from it. I'm willing to try it. Thanks guys.

Yes if you do the route, then Waze will have data for that time period as stated by Andy. You might have to do it a few times... But once Waze recognize that turn takes longer then it might change the route, but remember it is all math.

As Timbones said, Waze already calculates the fastest route (if you are using fastest instead of shortest). It uses the time it takes to make a turn when determining the fastest route, so this is already in place. That doesn't mean it will avoid making a turn in a location without a traffic light if it thinks that's faster.

Waze tracks time across a road as well as time going from one segment of road to another (such as at an intersection) for different times of the day. If it's very hard to get through at 5pm, but easy at 1am, Waze may route you differently. This assumes Waze has good speed data available. If no one using Waze has gone the route that is very slow at a certain time of day, Waze won't know it's slow. There are benefits and drawbacks to user generated speed data. The benefit is that when it is available, it's very accurate. The drawback is that if no one generates the data, Waze has nothing to go on and may route people the "wrong" way. In most cases, if you are willing to drive that slow way with Waze running a few times, then it should learn that it's very slow at that time of day and route through a faster route. That being said, it may still be the fastest route based on other people using Waze.

It would be nice to be able to highlight a route in the live map or editor, choose a time, and get the actual speed or time for the route at that time of day (and day of week if that's being used) based on what Waze uses. That would make it very easy to see why you are routed a specific way. Right now, we only have speed data for the road segments themselves and not for the time changing between segments and we can't choose the time of day to see the speed at a certain time.

Oh well, if you want to get the routing correct, it is definitely good to drive the route Waze suggests as well as the route that you are sure are faster at the same time of day. With some data, it will route better. Just remember others are also generating data as well. It may support or contradict yours based on driving habits. And verify that the first route provided really does say it's faster. There's a known issue where the first route isn't always the fastest if you look at the times of the alternate routes.

How about a way to 'mark' an intersection in the editor to give it some negative weight over certain times of the day? this goes to Danie2's point, can we nudge the priority in the event Waze hasn't collected enough data (i.e. all the locals know it's a bad route so nobody bothers to go that way)?

You're probably thinking "add a restriction to the turn movement" but in a case where say Route A is the slow, difficult turn and Route B is normally better, but someone breaks Route B, it would be nice to be able to get routed to route A during rush hour if the normally best way is blocked/slow

Waze does learn the average time to turn at a junction for different times during the day, and will differentiate between left turns and right turns. It will, in theory, take this in to account when calculating the fastest route* to your destination. It may be a while before it has collected enough data to determine this, however.

*You can configure your client to give you shortest routes instead, which won't use this information.