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Waze Rolling Out Railroad Crossing Alerts to More Countries

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Google-owned navigation app Waze today announced that it is expanding railroad crossing alerts to additional countries, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Israel, Brazil, Mexico, and others, according to The Verge. The safety feature quietly launched in the United States, Canada, and Belgium earlier this year.

waze_railway_crossing_alert.jpg

Enabled by default, the alerts pop up in the Waze app when a driver is approaching a railroad crossing on a street. The feature can be disabled in Waze's in-app settings under Map display > Reports > Railroad crossing > Alert me while driving.

Waze is available for free on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.

In related news, Google Maps will be returning to the Apple Watch in the coming weeks. The app supports estimated arrival times and step-by-step directions on ‌the Apple Watch‌ when using saved destinations like Work or Home. Other destinations require navigation to start on the iPhone, with the directions then picked up by the ‌Apple Watch‌.

Article Link: Waze Rolling Out Railroad Crossing Alerts to More Countries
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/08/12/waze-railroad-crossing-alerts/
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Theyayarealivin said:
Wow! That’s a useful feature! Apple should buy out Waze! What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Apple should have bought out Waze a long time ago, it would have made their maps app actually competitive. Crowd sourcing is incredible and once you use it you can never go back to a non crowd sourced navigation system. Apple looks primitive by comparison.
 
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MacRumors said:


Google-owned navigation app Waze today announced that it is expanding railroad crossing alerts to additional countries, including the United Kingdom, Italy, Israel, Brazil, Mexico, and others, according to The Verge. The safety feature quietly launched in the United States, Canada, and Belgium earlier this year.

waze_railway_crossing_alert.jpg

Enabled by default, the alerts pop up in the Waze app when a driver is approaching a railroad crossing on a street. The feature can be disabled in Waze's in-app settings under Map display > Reports > Railroad crossing > Alert me while driving.

Waze is available for free on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.

In related news, Google Maps will be returning to the Apple Watch in the coming weeks. The app supports estimated arrival times and step-by-step directions on ‌the Apple Watch‌ when using saved destinations like Work or Home. Other destinations require navigation to start on the iPhone, with the directions then picked up by the ‌Apple Watch‌.

Article Link: Waze Rolling Out Railroad Crossing Alerts to More Countries
Click to expand...
Railroad crossing data should include location of approaching trains and current status of closure.
 
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I have yet to see a single place this could be useful here in Switzerland.. All crossings are guarded by double poles or using an underpass instead.. But this is a welcome addition for sure..
 
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For some reason this year Waze stopped working with my AirPods.
Deleted reinstalled, nada.
 
Huh, could someone explain (to an European) why advance warning is needed or helpful for railroad crossings? I mean how are they different than e.g. traffic lights or pedestrian crossings?

I'm not trying to be dismissive, I'm truly curious if there's perhaps something different about US railroads. I regularly cross them, but something like this would have never occurred to me.
 
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Cool feature.

I know it's not remotely significant to total annual automobile collision deaths in the US, but close to 300 people are killed each year in the US from train related collisions ... which always seemed odd considering super loud train horns, but sadly it happens.
 
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PSeg90 said:
I think Waze has too many niche features to use on my daily commute. I hated getting notifications for stopped cars ahead, or a pothole, or even the police...all just unnecessary.
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I use Waze exactly because of these notifications, with the exception of the railroad ones which I find unnecessary as a popup alert. I'm fine with showing them on the map, but I have found the alerts annoying. Glad to know I can disable them now!
 
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foobarbaz said:
Huh, could someone explain (to an European) why advance warning is needed or helpful for railroad crossings? I mean how are they different than e.g. traffic lights or pedestrian crossings?

I'm not trying to be dismissive, I'm truly curious if there's perhaps something different about US railroads. I regularly cross them, but something like this would have never occurred to me.
Click to expand...
In the US there are a lot of level crossings and many don't have gates or even lights. As an American now living in Europe it seems like sheer madness to me now.
 
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foobarbaz said:
Huh, could someone explain (to an European) why advance warning is needed or helpful for railroad crossings? I mean how are they different than e.g. traffic lights or pedestrian crossings?
Click to expand...


Not all railroad crossings in the US have crossing guards (ie some can almost seem "unmarked" in more rural areas).

Plus, I imagine the audio/visual cues provided by waze in this case may help the visually/auditory impaired (that can still drive) more than the "average" user.
 
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foobarbaz said:
Huh, could someone explain (to an European) why advance warning is needed or helpful for railroad crossings? I mean how are they different than e.g. traffic lights or pedestrian crossings?

I'm not trying to be dismissive, I'm truly curious if there's perhaps something different about US railroads. I regularly cross them, but something like this would have never occurred to me.
Click to expand...

I'm in the US and am not sure what the use is for many users. For a motorcyclist, I could get it, but once I drove with Waze after it was enabled, I found out how to turn it off the next time I got home. We have lights and blockers everywhere I've driven which has an active railroad.
 
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foobarbaz said:
Huh, could someone explain (to an European) why advance warning is needed or helpful for railroad crossings? I mean how are they different than e.g. traffic lights or pedestrian crossings?

I'm not trying to be dismissive, I'm truly curious if there's perhaps something different about US railroads. I regularly cross them, but something like this would have never occurred to me.
Click to expand...

In the USA, railroad crossings are handled in a number of ways. On most busy roads if the railroad actually crosses the road, the intersection is guarded by lights and an arm that comes down. Other, less traveled, and often more rural roads may just have lights. Yet, other roads may have no guard at all -- only a sign in advance to warn. I can see usefulness in this for the average driver -- particularly where they're only guarded by lights or not guarded at the intersection at all.

Personally, I can see great use for this for Commercial Drivers who have Passenger or Hazmat designations. I have passenger designation to carry more than 15 passengers. It's rare that I drive such a group, but, when I do I'm required to stop at all railroad crossings (including light-only-guarded or unguarded with no train in sight). I believe it's the same for Hazmat. This would be a good reminder for me when I usually drive a car without the requirement. CDL drivers, though, are probably not one of Waze's primary targets.
 
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Had to turn off the alert sound because there are dozens of tracks through my town and it was constantly beeping.
 
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