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Google Maps traffic data in Waze

Post by alexxys
Copying the Hangout conversation to continue it here:

Aleksandr
Hi guys!
I would like to discuss the problem with poor traffic data In Waze in Ireland/Dublin
Everybody knows that Waze live traffic coverage in Ireland is very scarce and that's why Waze cannot often route you around traffic congestions. The Russian city where I'm from had the same issue in the past. Low number of users, poor live traffic coverage, sub-optimal routes. But the situation improved dramatically some time ago, because Waze started using traffic data from Google Maps. Now Waze shows all the traffic jams, makes very accurate arrival time ETAs, and suggests very good routes around traffic jams during rush hours.
I'm wondering whether it's possible/planned for Ireland as well to use Google Maps traffic data. It would be a huge improvement for Waze. Does anybody know anything about that?
Can we ask the Waze representatives about such traffic data exchange?
Tim
Yes, we can probably talk to Waze about getting this traffic data from Google, that is a) if they don't already and b) if Google has any...
Maybe @David could email HQ about it?
(Shira is back next month...)
David
aside from using Google traffic date, compare the peak number of Waze users in Dublin (max of 300 at a time): http://wazestats.com/active.php?city=27 ) to a larger city (for example London - max 40,000 (!) at a time - http://wazestats.com/active.php?city=16 )
anyway, yes, I'll certainly contact Waze HQ and ask about it
however, it wouldn't surprise me if Waze is already getting traffic data from Google. Our problem could be that Dublin is a relatively small city (so not much data from either Waze or Google users) but also big enough to have serious traffic
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Re: Google Maps traffic data in Waze

Post by alexxys
I doubt that Waze uses Google Maps data in Ireland. I was comparing Waze and Google Maps many times in Dublin. Waze sees only a tiny fraction of the traffic congestion that Google Maps sees. So I have a big hope that Waze routing can be improved dramatically here because I already saw such a dramatic improvement in the city I'm from.
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Re: Google Maps traffic data in Waze

Post by alexxys
It's the city of Krasnodar. It doesn't appear in the Active Wazers statistics.
It has roughly the same population as Dublin, about one million. The city always had the same problem in Waze as Dublin: low number of users (and mappers) and as a result, too little traffic information and sub-optimal routing during peak hours. Then one or two years ago I noticed that traffic coverage increased very much. For example the city center was looking almost completely red during peak hours. And the streets were really congested exactly as Waze was showing. It was looking as if the number of active Waze users increase by several orders of magnitude.
I asked a local Waze champ what happened that the number of users increased so quickly and so much. He said that Waze started importing traffic data from Google Maps. So it's not direct information from Waze. It may be not 100% correct. But it was looking exactly like traffic data import from Google Maps. It's unrealistic that the number of users just increased naturally like that.
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Re: Google Maps traffic data in Waze

Post by alexxys
Even the capital of Russia (Moscow with 12 million population) has quite low number of users: up to 800. Extrapolating that number to Krasnodar, I think the number of users in Krasnodar is even lower than in Dublin (which is up to 300)
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Re: Google Maps traffic data in Waze

Post by alexxys
Hi David. Any news from Waze HQ?
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Re: Google Maps traffic data in Waze

Post by alexxys
David, thanks a lot for the great news and for pushing the request to the HQ! Sorry for the late "thank you". The notifications from this thread stopped coming to me, so I didn't notice your reply until now.
To be honest I started testing Google Maps during last two weeks and didn't use Waze. But I will be happy to return back to Waze.
Looking at the Waze and Google Maps, looks like Waze still doesn't have traffic data from Google. But let's hope it's just a delay that HQ mentioned.
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Re: Google Maps traffic data in Waze

Post by alexxys
Waze still doesn't see many traffic congestions that Google sees and makes very inaccurate ETAs during peak hours when Google makes much better ETAs. So import of Google traffic data to Waze definitely doesn't work properly.
David, do they need more examples of such issues? I could send them some.
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Re: Google Maps traffic data in Waze

Post by alexxys
This is an example from today.
Waze didn't see a standstill traffic near Dundrum Shopping Center.
Date/time: April 15, 2018 2:16pm UTC+1
Start/end points of the route
Will try to catch more similar issues next week.
Google.png
(136.02 KiB) Downloaded 270 times
Waze.png
(162.74 KiB) Downloaded 246 times
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Re: Google Maps traffic data in Waze

Post by alexxys
Thanks David!
I have a theory why Waze doesn't see heavy traffic in some places but sees it in others. And it correlates quite well (not 100% always though) with what I see on the maps. Looks like the issue happens on the roads that have different names on Waze and Google maps.
I suppose Waze may import not raw GPS tracks from Google maps, but traffic data in some preprocessed form. Google maps may link each GPS track to a road. Waze may take that preprocessed data with road names and try to correlate it with its map by comparing the road names. If a road name differs it may not able to correlate Google data with its map, so it may not able to import such data.

On the other side, in the places where I definitely saw heavy traffic correlation between Google and Waze, road names were always the same.

Some proofs of the theory:
- My yesterday's example: Google's road name is Wyckham Way. Waze's name is Ballinteer Rd.
- Another example where I saw significant traffic mismatch: Google's name is Stocking Ln. Waze's name is R115.
- Another example: Google doesn't have a road name. Waze's name is Ballycullen Rd.

May be worth forwarding it to Waze HQ as well.
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Re: Google Maps traffic data in Waze

Post by alexxys
davidg666 wrote:Do you think Google is capable of disregarding the R115 (or similar) that we use at the start of road names and just using the name part that comes after the number, assuming we have it?
Perhaps it's not a problem for Google/Waze. It's difficult to say for sure but for example here Waze's name is 'R110 Crumlin Rd' but looks like traffic is imported correctly.
Another example: R117 Sandyford Rd. Yesterday heavy traffic looked ok in Waze here (see my screenshots above).
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