What is a Traffic Event?
Traffic Events are real-world events that impact traffic. They represent unique hyperlocal information to help Waze drivers plan routes before or during their drive. Traffic Events must be associated with road closures. Traffic Events are categorized into sporting events, construction, festivals, crisis events, demonstrations, concerts, parades, and 'Other'. For example, an event can be a marathon, whereas a crisis event can be flooding or wildfire.
Why create a Traffic Event?
Enable Waze to keep traffic running smoothly in your area by clearly defining road closures and events, drivers will be routed to avoid these areas and reach their destination faster.
Build confidence with drivers by notifying them in advance TEs in Waze will also send advanced notifications to drivers, enabling them to plan ahead and be informed.
Who can submit a Traffic Event?
Users with permissions to Waze Map Editor (WME) that can add traffic events and road
closures per their lock level: Community editors, Waze partners, Waze support teams.
Publishing Process
Our guidelines: Ensure push notifications are sent on time by following these guidelines:
General guidelines
- Multiple closures can be grouped under the same event, but must be in the same area
- The start time of the event should be at a future date to enable drivers to get notifications ahead of time
- Notifications for construction events are only sent when they’re on major roads and shorter than 48 hours
- All TEs must be aligned with Google policies
Event naming guidelines
The name you enter in the event will be displayed to drivers in push and in-product notifications. Make sure that:
- You’ve used correct spelling and grammar
- The name clearly reflects the event
- There are no special characters in the event name (i.e. $%!&*)
- There are no links in the event name
- The event name does not contain the word “closures”
Once your event is approved, Waze servers determine your notification and audience.
Tip: To send push notifications for events that don’t meet the general guidelines, email Waze-closures@google.com.
Server logic
Push notification logic:
- If the event starts in the morning, the push will be sent at 4 PM on the previous day
- If the event starts between 1 PM and 11 PM, the push will be sent 4 hours before the start time of the event (for example, the push is sent at 10 AM for an event that starts at 2 PM)
- If the event starts after 11 PM, the push will be sent at 7 PM
Audience list logic
The server considers data on a 40-day period and sends the push notifications to drivers that frequently drove on the segments with the road closures during that timeframe.
*Note: If the event submitter doesn't drive in the closures area, they won't get the push notification.
Adding an event to the WME
- Add event: Log in to the WME In the left-side panel, click Events • Click Add new event
- Add details: In the new event panel, enter the relevant information. Ensure the event name is exactly how you want it to appear to drivers. Click Save
- Add & associate closures: Once your event is saved, click the Road Closures tab and enter the segments that will be closed to traffic during the timeframe of the event. Click Submit
Watch this video for more detailed instructions on creating events and closures
In case you want the support of Waze support team to add the traffic event and road closures, please send an email to waze-closures@google.com with the following details:
- The event name in English and in the local language
- All street names closed during the event
- Intersecting street where each closure begins and ends
- Start and end time for each closed road
- Start and end date for each closed road
- Indicate if the whole road is closed or just one direction is close
Check your push status
All the TEs you create will appear in the Waze Map Editor > Events area.
After the support team approves that your TE submission meets our guidelines, that status will be updated to ‘published’.
For questions, support, and special requests (such as publishing an event), please send an email to Waze-closures@google.com.