Thank you to all who joined us last week for this exciting episode of Office Hours!

As promised here is the Q&A you submitted along with answers from our Map and Closures Teams. 


Closures (Feeds): 

Would it be possible to put the Team Closure editors in France in a feed so they can communicate with your teams directly?
We'd be more than happy to work with you on it and you can reach out to noamr@waze.com about this!

We are going to have more and more Waze partner firefighters and rescue services, would it be possible to have special access for them so that they can get through the closures?
Closures are closed for routing for all types of Waze drivers. They can still drive on the closed segments if needed but we can't set special permissions for them.

What's the best way to get in touch with event organizers and Highway Agencies? The Belux community has tried multiple times to contact the Luxembourgish highway agency without success.
If it's a partner - reach out to your staff CM and we'll make the connection. If they are not, we can't really help, unfortunately.


Closures (Geo):

Gmaps takes the closures of Waze, why doesn't Waze take the closures of Gmaps? At least getting an input on the map. (This question was submitted several times)
We are starting to look into this. 

Scheduled road closures on Waze will show on Google Maps (good!) But if we remove the scheduled closure before the original end time, the removal does not propagate to GMaps. This means the closure remains on GMaps until that originally scheduled end time (bad!)
Google Maps uses different signals to manage closures on their end, including but not limited to reports from Waze, so their closures could behave differently. If there are specific examples please send them over and we'll ask Google Maps to investigate

Is there also a reputation for editors and/or Waze partners so that road closings are taken into account on GMAPS? (Or what are the details of this data transfer which seems to vary according to the editors)
The source of the report is taken into account. However Google Maps has a separate system that uses a mix of signals to decide on closures, so it's hard for us to anticipate how exactly our closures will be handled there. We're looking into improving this behavior together


Closures (Insights & Safety Squad Plans)

Is there a kind of notoriety (trusted user) for the implementation of road closings made by the wazer with the application to be effective? (Or how does it work for them?)
Yes, this is already the case. UGC reports from editors L5+ are immediately effective. In addition if you are a user which reported a lot in the past your report would also have more weight.

If I drive now and the closure will happen in one hour and it will take me one hour to drive there I still get that route. But when I arrive there the road is closed. And will get a reroute from that point when the road is closed.
We are working on this now - routing will start considering planned closures, with a certain level of confidence. 

Any actual example of closures that are auto detected? How is it "auto" detected? I have never seen (or at least don't remember seeing) one.
This is something that happens in the BE, and the closure will look like a closure from any other source. We used to ask users to validate these closures, but turned it off recently since it was a complex and buggy flow. We are working now on imporoving the detection logic and considering making those closure public with no user validation. 

I recently added an event with closures for a parade.  It resulted the app having a Waze traffic alert at 01:02 - is that by design?  (Most people sleeping / maybe some awaken by Waze?)
Please send us the details for this event so we can take a closer look. Feel free to email them to cohenbrett@waze.com

Any plans to revamp the interface to inform about closures from the app? It is a pity to see closed streets live and not be able to report them.
Yes, we are planning to start working on it later this year

Can we alert users that their data was used to create a auto-closure?
Auto-detection relies on aggregated data thus identifying specific users that contributed to it, so this is not feasible unfortunately.

ETA on closures from carplay/android auto? Increasing amounts of new vehicles are using this.
We will probably get started on this after/as we improve the closures reporting from the mobile app. 

Waze has real-time insights into traffic.  If Waze can detect traffic and route around it, it should be able to detect that no one is following the guidance to turn onto a segment.  Waze should realize that's a closure and close the segment.  Then it could reopen it when Waze detects Wazers.
We are currently working on improving detection and suspension logic. 

Are you planning to improve the event website? It is currently very unfriendly. This does not entice partners to use MEs for their events.
This is something we would like to improve but there is no timeline for it at the moment.

Is there a quick fix for the algorithm not taking into account scheduled closes that will activate in the path of the Wazer?
We are working on this now - routing will start considering planned closures, with a certain level of confidence. 

I sometimes see that traffic jams are not displayed at full length on freeways. Mostly single, smaller segments are omitted, like bridge or tunnel segments.
Is this error known? Unfortunately, this splits the traffic jam and does not display it as a whole length, with the total lost time.
We'd like to open a bug to investigate this. Please send more details and specific examples to cohenbrett@waze.com 


Closures (WME)

Is there any chance to add closures via snapshot mode, so that we can add closures to segments that have been split or even recently deleted?
We are looking at the option to allow editors to add closure in snapshot mode. We are explowing few implementations option but currently it's not planned for 2023.

Is it possible to add an option to the WME Closure settings, to allow an editor to add a condition to a Closure that will say something to the effect: "If you detect traffic starting to flow through this set closure, remove this closure..."?
That's the default behavior for closures, if we detect traffic flow we lift the closure unless the editor explicitly flagged the HOV/service road adjacent checkbox. Is it possible to redesign the closure appearance in WME to reflect a one-way closure on a two-way segment? Maybe make the stripes pointed in the direction of the closure?
The UX Team will investigate this request.

For the Closed Road UR, I have gotten complaints from reporters that they have put in the closure information already when they submitted the Closure.  Can we get the information from the Closure they put in?
This is not a type of data that we receive from users, unfortunately, so we can't provide more exact details currently. 


Issue Tracker

When will there be a way to search for all URs in which someone is involved and also a way to sort URs from old to new?
Sorting URs from older to newer is within our plans and will be available in the near future. Searching for all URs in which someone is involved is not planned, but I am happy to pass on this feedback to the team.
 
We need a specific filter for EVCS PURs.
Indeed, we are planning to add a filter for EVCS PURs

What is the status to show the language of the reporter. That would already OK be in terms of privacy. It's a huge flaw that we don't know how to address the user.
We are still investigating this. We don't currently have updates to share.

When will the issue tracker works with driven areas?
Driven areas will be part of the areas filter in future phases of the Issue Tracker

The version in production WME seems like a beta or even alpha version. It doesn't hold settings, even during a session when panning the map. When will this be improved? I've been unable to resolve as many URs and PURs as I used to.
Sorry to hear you are having this experience, is there a specific setting you'd like to report that is not being saved? We used to have some issues saving the sync with map setting but that should be solved. Additionally, we are planning on adding support for saved searches.

Have you considered the possibility to edit directly in the editor the name of the managed areas?
We have considered this within the team but we prioritized other enhancements that we believe will provide more value such as saved search, adding location details to issue cards, adding more advanced filters to URs, etc. You can still submit for an area name change through your community's coordinator. 

Could we have the ability to sort URs in the tracker based on how long ago they were reported? Currently it seems like they only sort by how long ago the most recent comment was.
This is great feedback, happy to pass it on to the team. It's not currently planned.

Will there be a way to list only resolved/not identified issues in the future?
You can currently filter by open/closed issues. Open issues are not resolved by definition, but I understand you'd like to see issues mark as not identified. It is not planned, but I am happy to share this with the team.

You can only filter according to whether you were the last to respond or the wazer. If you have a lot of URs, it is extremely difficult to find a UR that you answered penultimate. You have to click on each UR where the wazer last responded and then see if you were involved in the UR.
You can use the time filter to filter the last comment by you. Could you further explain what you think should be added in an email to cohenbrett@waze.com? Thanks for the feedback!

Will there be an option to rename managed areas and/or filter by driven area?
At the moment there is a manual option to rename AMs- please get in touch with your community's coordinator to ask for an area rename.

is there a possibility to resolve in the app the issue?
Sorry, but this question isn't quite clear. If you mean WME support for mobile, not at the moment. But we are constantly reviewing this option.

In WME, why is Search Location greyed out when zoomed out too far?
We believe that in zoom less than 12, any editing action is challening because of the lower visibility of the map. Please let us know if this is indeed the question you were asking

Regarding Coordinators being able to rename AM areas for editors, it's been over a month with unprocessed requests in the sheet. When will the requests be processed?
You are right, apologies for the delay. We are checking when the requests will be processed. 





Thanks for joining us once again, and we can't wait to see you for May's episode!
Brett, on behalf of the Waze Communities Team