User:PesachZ/Temporary closures

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Roads may be partially or completely closed in one or both directions for multiple reasons:

• Road construction
• Natural disasters
• Local events

Also these instances may close a road for a few hours, days, weeks, and even years. Depending upon how long the road will be closed will determine what method is used to update the map.

DO NOT use Closures or Partial Restrictions for lane closures. Closures are only to be used when a segment is completely closed to all public through traffic temporarily. Partial Restrictions can be used when a segment is completely closed to specific types of vehicles.

Overview

There are five methods to control traffic flow:

1. Mega events
2. Temporary closures
3. Closures report from the client
4. Partial restrictions
5. Disconnect road segments

• Mega event - A major event that will typically have road closures or detours. It is usually a scheduled event with significant exposure and likely to impact an entire community. A major natural disaster can be added after it occurs if roads are going to be rerouted for many days.

• 

  Temporary Closures - Temporary Closures can be entered in WME, or through the client as you drive by them. See next item for Closures report from client. Closures can be added to segments in WME by high ranking editors, without actually modifying the segment, or its turn restrictions. These display in the client and Livemap with alerts and candy stripes on the segments notifying users of the closures.
  Due to its' safety and visibilty, this is the preferred method for closing a road.
  Editors who do not have access to add closures in WME can request a higher ranking editor to help using a designated request format, or the unlock/update request for their country. In the USA the Road Closures Form (USA) is used.

• 

  Closures report from the client - Users in the client app can mark an unexpected road closure they see while driving. It is typically used for unexpected, short term closures of up to a few days. This feature requires multiple users at the location to enter the same road closure information on the map before it will be seen by other drivers.

• 

  Partial restrictions - AKA Scheduled or Time-Based Restrictions. Used when turns or roadways are restricted for certain times of day, days of the week, vehicle types, etc. It has the ability to only restrict during a specific date range, so it can be used in place of mega events or temporary road closures if necessary (as a last resort).

• Disconnect road segments - Road segments should only be physically disconnected if the road is no longer intended to connect or is being permanently removed. In the past, this method was used for longer term construction projects, but now the Road Closure feature should be used.

Hours, days, weeks

If the road is affected for only a few hours or even a few weeks then use the Report > Closure feature in the Waze client application. Note this requires a person be physically located at the point of the road closure to report it in the client application. Several people may need to report the closure for it to affect routing for all users. Alternately, the Temporary Closure can be added directly in WME (see below).

Days, weeks, months, years

WME has the ability to restrict traffic flow through a segment in one or both directions using the Temporary Closure feature.

This is the preferred method for closing roads due to its safety and visibility to the Wazers.

This feature is restricted to rank 5 editors and above. The closure can be entered directly in WME, and is visible almost immediately in the client and Livemap. It is displayed prominently on the map as a closure alert, and with red and white candy stripe lines along the closed segments. This feature allows editors to temporarily prevent routing over specific segments, without having to make any changes to, or damage those segments and their junctions.

If you do not have the required rank to access the Temporary Closure feature in WME, you can ask a higher ranking editor to do it for you. Your country may have a streamlined monitored process for this, or it can be submitted like any other unlock/update request. In the USA the Road Closures Form (USA) is used for example.

For road construction situations, refer to that article for additional specific information.

NOTE: If a segment is closed using this feature, the segment will not be editable by any editors - regardless of rank - while the closure is in effect. This is by design, to prevent any changes to segment and junction IDs which will corrupt the closure.

How to add a Temporary Closure in WME

1. Select the segments you want to close.
2. Click the Add Closure button in the left panel.
3. Click to + Add Closure in the pop-up frame.
4. Enter a general location of the closure, this will be displayed only in WME. (This can be the name of the road, the interchange, or the area if several roads in a known area are being closed.)
5. Enter a description for the closure in the "Reason" field. This will also be displayed in the closure alert bubble in the client and livemap.
6. Choose if the road should be closed in only a specific direction, or in both directions (using the A and B nodes for reference).
7. If this closure is related to a nearby Mega event, choose the event from the drop-down. This feature is not currently active yet as of February 22, 2015 (2015-02-22).
8. Enter the Date the closure will start, (this can be a date in the past). Use the YYYY-MM-DD format.
9. Enter the time the closure will begin in 24 hour format (00:00).
10. Enter the date and time the closure will end in the same formats, (this can not be more than 183 days after the start date).
11. Save the closure, and verify it saved correctly in WME and in Livemap, and/or the client.

Closures minutiae

Need to brainstorm a better section title

• Temporary Closures can be added to multiple segments simultaneously by selecting all the affected segments first. Be careful to verify all the segments after you save that the Temporary Closure were added properly. It's been reported before when multiple Temporary Closures were added at once, that some of the segments either weren't closed, or had incorrect details in the closure (e.g. direction).
  • If only some of the segments are one-way, or some one-way segments are in opposing direction (B-A, A-B), you can set the Temporary Closure as two-way for all the segments. When you save you will see an error line for each direction of a closed segment which failed to save because the segment is one-way. You can ignore the error, and all your segments should be closed in all possible directions. (Be sure to double check them all.)
• Temporary Closures entered using this feature are not subject to waiting for a tile update, they will go live almost immediately. However if you enter a Temporary Closure for a segment which has been modified enough (e.g. changed the segment ID, node ID, or junction location) since the last tile update, the Temporary Closure will not save until the new segment changes go live. If entered through a Google Sheet the alerts will likely show in the new location of the nodes, but the candy stripe and routing effects won't be implemented until the segment changes are live.
  • To protect against this, if you try to close a new or modified segment before the tiles update, the closure will not save and WME will display an error (!) Element Segment with ID xxxxxxxx was not found (probably deleted). Wait till after the changes are included in a tile build, and then enter the closure again and it should save.
• The Temporary Closure system is based in the segment (and node) IDs, as a safety measure they will not be editable while there is a Temporary Closure added to the segment.
  • If you need to edit the segment, you will have to first remove the Temporary Closure (copy the details first), then modify the segment, then add a new Temporary Closure with the details you copied to the appropriate segments.
• A Temporary Closure can not be entered along with any other saves, similar to House Numbers. If you have any edits pending a save, and try to add a Temporary Closure you will get an error at the end. Be sure to save before trying to add a Temporary Closure.
• If a road is closed with a Temporary Closure, there is no need to duplicate the Temporary Closure with an additional Partial Restriction for travelling across the segment, or change any turn restrictions. (This also helps preserve the map, as soon as the Temporary Closure expires, the map will route as it's supposed to.)
• When adding a Temporary Closure consider whether any cross traffic will be blocked as well.
  1. If traffic going across your Temporary Closure at a junction must be blocked as well, you will need to close one of the cross street segments as well.
  2. You should close the segment leading away from the Temporary Closure. If the cross street is a two way street, close only the shorter segment.
  3. When closing a two way cross street segment, only set the Temporary Closure to the direction leading away from the Temporary Closure.

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• Temporary Closures must not be longer than 6 calendar months (183 days to be precise).
  • To enter a Temporary Closure longer than 6 months, split it into multiple Temporary Closures. Each Temporary Closure entered should be less than 6 months. E.g. A one year Temporary Closure from 2011-12-01 through 2015-11-30 can be entered as two individual Temporary Closures.
    1. 2014-12-01 - 2015-05-31 (182 days)
    2. 2015-06-01 - 2015-11-30 (183 days)

Be careful choosing closure times. 00:00 is the first minute of a day, 23:59 is the last minute of a day. A closure ending on Jan 1st at 00:00 will leave the road open for the entire day of Jan 1st, while 23:59 would leave the road closed for that entire day. To prevent ambiguity try using 00:01 instead of 00:00 as a closure time.

• Temporary Closures are active for the full minute they are set for.
  • A Closure set for Start: 03:00 - End: 03:01, will actually be closed for 119 seconds, from 03:00:00 - 03:01:59.
  • A closure set for Start: 03:00, End: 04:00, will actually be closed for 60 minutes and 59 seconds, from 03:00:00 - 04:00:59.

• 

  Adding a Temporary Closure does not put your name as the last editor for the segment (Updated By: user (#)), however you can see who added a closure by looking at the alert in livemap or the client. (You may find the WME LiveMap Alerts Overlay script useful for this, it will display the livemap alerts with the details in WME.)
• The WME LiveMap Closures script emphasizes closed segments with a red and white dashed line in WME for editors of all ranks.

Daily for certain times

If the road is closed every day or numerous days for a certain time of day, the proper solution will require Partial restrictions, also known as Scheduled or Time based restrictions. You will have to wait for a tile update for the routing changes to take effect, so you may want to add a Temporary Closure from WME for the first couple of days. (Unless of course, you would like to, and are able to enter each days closure individually in WME, to take advantage of the visual benefits in the client and livemap.)

NOTES for all durations

The current time frame for map tile generation is every day on all map infrastructures. Due to when the map update cycle starts, changes to segments in Temporary Closures should be saved in the editor two days prior to the event.

• Don't forget to edit the map back when the road partially or completely reopens.
• If a road is closed, it should not be disconnected from the road network, unless it is never planned to be reopened. E.g. converted to pedestrian plaza, or demolished roads.
• Changing the road direction to "Unknown" will not prevent routing on the road since this means to Waze that it should analyze drives along this segment and change the road direction automatically. This setting will allow Waze to create routes along the road as if it were a 2-way segment.
• If one direction of a road is closed permanently, change the road direction to "One-Way" and also put a turn restriction as appropriate on junctions with the road.
• There is no need to edit the map for lane closures.
• If the road is slower than usual, Waze will learn the average road speed has fallen and make automatic Road reports. Routing will automatically be adjusted to account for the speed.
• If there is an official detour route, Waze will learn about it as you drive it.
• You should check that all surrounding roads are mapped properly and have correct directionality and connectivity so that Waze can find the best detour.
• Ensuring the surrounding area roads are set to the appropriate road types will also help Waze find the best detours.

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