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Waze for responders

Post by MoveOverSlowDown
I use Waze every single day at work -- I'm a Safety Service patrolman for my local DOT, driving up and down highways looking for people in trouble. The crowdsourced data Waze collects on the locations of stopped vehicles are invaluable to my ability to discover where traffic hazards are, and I use this data to help remove those hazards. When you complain about road debris or a vehicle in a bad spot, I'm the one removing that. Several other drivers with our service run Waze because it is just so valuable having a heads up display of nearby traffic and road hazards.

There's some features and corrections that would make life incredibly better for those of us using the back-end of the system like this.

1. Add a finer control of which type of things appear on the map. I don't need to see construction crews, or weather hazards, or missing signs. I only need to see road debris, stopped vehicles, roadside assistance requests, and police. But currently, the options don't give you the choice of specific things you would like to see. Less clutter makes for a more efficient workflow.

2. Roadside help requests form makes no mention of state run patrol services designed to get people going for free. In many states, you call 911 or another number to summon the state services, during specific hours. In Massachusetts, it is 6-10am, 3-7pm weekdays via calling 911. State safety service patrols exist throughout much of the United States, with completely free services designed to clear roadways expediently. It would make sense to add this kind of information somewhere to the request assistance forms. For now, I just scan Fellow Wazer requests if they come in and see if anyone there needs help, but most of the services I do are for non wazers that as re discovered through stopped vehicle on shoulder reports.

3. Pay to remove advertisements. They sometimes get in the way. I'd love to just dismiss them and get them out of there.

4. Maybe have a first responder mode with the ability to set a patrol area to monitor, and get notifications if any new item appears within that area?

I should mention some of the testimonials of how Waze helps responders in times of need. If someone calls 911 with, say, a car crash with injuries, but they don't know where on the highway they are, the location that gets referenced to the state police is very vague, and it may take resources a VERY long time to arrive on scene and start assisting the injured. Additionally, extra time with blocked lanes or crashes means a cascading effect with regional traffic. By having Waze up and available, I can see where people report crashes with a high degree of precision, and make educated guesses as to where the people are who need us the most.

I do understand Waze has the CCP program they are trying to market to regional dispatch centers, but us boots on the ground need a system to see in real time where we can decide where to drive to and what to check on. CCP is nice, but it doesn't solve the problem for patrol-route style assets like we are, only for dispatched assets.
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Last edited by MoveOverSlowDown on Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

Post by APettyJ
Your desire for a finer control over the display already exists to an extent. Go to"Settings" : "Advanced Settings" : "Display and Map" : "Details on map". "Hazards" aren't broken down between weather, objects on road and the like, but can remove construction, "road goodies" (extra points in the form of candy") and other things.

If you scroll further down in "Advance Settings" you will come to "Notifications", where I believe you can opt out of advertisements.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201711 ... 91a71b.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201711 ... 7caf44.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201711 ... dab5d5.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201711 ... 214c2d.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201711 ... 2f5db6.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201711 ... d0f581.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201711 ... 4c93a6.jpg

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Post by CSparksYoda
There are times while traveling that I need to notify the local sheriffs of a situation. Could there be a way to see which county/parish I am in? This would allow me to call the correct law enforcement agency. Tganks
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Post by CSparksYoda
There are times while traveling that I need to notify the local sheriffs of a situation. Could there be a way to see which county/parish I am in? This would allow me to call the correct law enforcement agency. Thanks
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Post by Karstunen
MoveOverSlowDown wrote:I do understand Waze has the CCP program they are trying to market to regional dispatch centers, but us boots on the ground need a system to see in real time where we can decide where to drive to and what to check on. CCP is nice, but it doesn't solve the problem for patrol-route style assets like we are, only for dispatched assets.
So good to hear these real life examples how Waze is being used professionally. I suggest posting also in this CCP Hub forum.
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Post by Karstunen
MoveOverSlowDown wrote:I'm not allowed to see the CCP Hub forum when I click the link. I do feel like this feedback would be valuable to their goals over there.
Ah, these user rights... Forwarded your post there.
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Post by MoveOverSlowDown
KariH-Fin wrote:
MoveOverSlowDown wrote:I do understand Waze has the CCP program they are trying to market to regional dispatch centers, but us boots on the ground need a system to see in real time where we can decide where to drive to and what to check on. CCP is nice, but it doesn't solve the problem for patrol-route style assets like we are, only for dispatched assets.
So good to hear these real life examples how Waze is being used professionally. I suggest posting also in this CCP Hub forum.
I'm not allowed to see the CCP Hub forum when I click the link. I do feel like this feedback would be valuable to their goals over there.

Our department did try a top down dispatched system, but it didn't show any improvements statistically having a dispatcher tell us where things are. It's so much better for us, the responders, to have that information available to us immediately and self dispatch based on what we see (within the limited 15mi zoom range of the large icon tileset)
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Post by MoveOverSlowDown
KariH-Fin wrote:
MoveOverSlowDown wrote:I'm not allowed to see the CCP Hub forum when I click the link. I do feel like this feedback would be valuable to their goals over there.
Ah, these user rights... Forwarded your post there.
Thank you! :)
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Post by MoveOverSlowDown
KariH-Fin wrote: So good to hear these real life examples how Waze is being used professionally.
Waze offers incredible insights to what we do. Our job is to drive around in circles all day looking for people in trouble and getting them going to clear traffic congestion. Waze fits right into this on my dashboard, telling me where things are, so I can make informed decisions of where to go and what to investigate. I rarely ever post new items on the map, just look for others and see whether they are a problem or not. It saves minutes when lives count on accurate data to get people help. Of course, the information that people actually post can vary in accuracy, but over time you start to see trends of what is a real report versus a vehicle that will be gone on arrival: multiple reports on the same location, multiple thumbs up.

One of the issues is that it's impossible to permanently delete/hide an icon you don't need to see from far away. If someone reports something I don't need to know, like a missing sign, I'd love to just delete/hide the notification from the map view.

Yeah, I wish I had access to the CCP forum. I'm sure they'd have a field day asking me all kinds of questions about how Waze can function on the individual responder level. :P
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