The current way to report road closures aso is a real pain
A few updates ago I was at least still able to mark (and report) multiple sections in one - it still ended up in many reports for a road-work project as side-roads / cross-roads that are connected to the main road and that also get closed in the same go, or sections with (according to Google) no name, need all their seperate report.
In the report a field is missing to put an URL for a link to the official announcement/document of the road administration responsible for the action.
The validation process of Google takes far too long and they often do the wrong decission
The is no way to revoke/alter a report handed in (e.g. road administration publishes: road will get closed from tuesday. Then they do not finish the privious action or they have a weather problem and they publish on monday: weâll close from thursday not from tuesday - then there is no way to alter a report handed in on sunday).
There seems to be no âtrusted accountsâ system. I am a Local Guide Level 9, still it often takes 2 weeks until it passes âquality controlâ. Usually then the road is already closed for 1 1/2 weeks and will be reopened 1 or 2 days after the closure gets active.
Also official bodies seem to have no way to feed in closures directly. I could easily get a letter from the local road administrations and city counsils that I feed road-works on their behalf.
(like manual alerts on google transit)
Also the emails you get afterwards to not reflect all data-fields. The closure shown is put in for 2018-10-29 to 2019-05-02 (so in future), in the mail it says simply: âroad closed = yesâ
So⌠now your 5 cents⌠How can Google Maps can become really useful with current changes of road-closures aso?
Please donât tell me âWazeâ is the answer. I wonât go 30 miles to the place of the closure just tap âits closedâ then go a 10 miles detour to tap on the other side âits closedâ and then go 40 miles back if I can do this all from my desk based on the official announcements and before the closure causes trouble to drivers.
Thanks for the feedback @Wastl I would suggest two things - sending feedback via the Maps App which will go to the dev team - feedback given here gets summarised and provided periodically.
If you have suggestions for how to improve the interface, raise it on Idea Exchange and see what others think of your idea.
Even when we had the ability to directly edit roads ourselves,the road editing feature has never been set up for temporary road closures. For one thing, it takes up to a week for Directions to up update after the actual edit is done (it used to be up to 6 months).
Instead what currently happens is the closures are imported from Waze, which is also owned by Google. You might want to report such things via that app.
The road editiing feature (changing the physical connections between to points) was very useful, esp. in areas with a high volume of new bypass-road projects (thank you EU ).
Still we have to see: Editing a road itself has got nothing to do with marking it closed during road/bridge (re)-construction/restauration times (most of the time 1 week to 1 year) so that people get routed the right (suitable priory) ways around on a bigger scale and not suddenly stand in front of a sign âroad closedâ and have to turn back.
As I said, I am aware of the existence Waze but I is not a suitable tool as it allows very âfuzzyâ closure reports only and (what are the worse facts) only if you are on spot and then from 1 side only and not before-hand, whats very useful when you have the infos of the road administration about closures. - Also Waze works only if many report when they are in place. No.1 in Germany noone (except a few freaks) use Waze, No. 2 when at a closed road people here a busy to find a detour and have no chance to stop and report. By german law touching the phone while engine on will give you a fine > 70 USD plus if you are cought more than 6 times you loose your driverâs lic.
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So: To get Google Maps useful as a routing tool that has at least 70% of the quality of TomTom and competiors at least closed roads must be in from the second of closure latest.
As I said, I am aware of the existence Waze but I is not a suitable tool as it allows very âfuzzyâ closure reports only and (what are the worse facts) only if you are on spot and then from 1 side only and not before-hand, whats very useful when you have the infos of the road administration about closures.
Waze road reports are handled by volunteers. Describe what is happening, such as âboth sides of the roadâ or âstarting in 2 weeksâ and they will handle the rest.
Also Waze works only if many report when they are in place.
It only requires one report
No.1 in Germany noone (except a few freaks) use Waze, .
I donât think itâs appropriate at all to describe people that do something other than what you do as âfreaksâ. And it really doesnât matter how many people will view it within Waze; Iâll remind you that the point was that the closures then transfer over to Maps.
No. 2 when at a closed road people here a busy to find a detour and have no chance to stop and report. By german law touching the phone while engine on will give you a fine > 70 USD plus if you are cought more than 6 times you loose your driverâs lic.
Iâm unsure how this is a point to be made at all; as the same restrictions would apply to Maps.
However, in this case Waze actually has an advantage; you can make road reports by voice only; including verbally describing the issue. Additionally, a visit to the Google Maps forum will get you help, many of the serious mappers who do have high trust levels on the platform also have the same in Waze and thus can get things done there too.
You can also edit Waze from your computer and visit their forums to report an issue.
It would be nice to see these features transferred to Maps, but in the meantime Waze most definitely does provide a way to get those edits accomplished.
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