[Scan-DC] Why Some Cities Have Had Enough of Waze
Alan Henney
alan at henney.com
Wed May 9 00:58:31 EDT 2018
Didn't we see this same article about a year ago? Don't know why it ran
again this week on USNEWS.com.
USNEWS.com
CIVIC; National News Vol. No.
Why Some Cities Have Had Enough of Waze
Tala Salem
May 7, 2018 Monday
HIGHLIGHT: Start-up-turned-tech-giant Waze solves traffic problems for some
users, but creates traffic challenges for others.
Thomas Nehren never knew what to expect when he was on the road in his
hometown of Salt Lake City. Whether it was speed traps, accidents or road
construction, he too often found himself on the wrong street at the wrong
time, when a different way to work might have kept him away from traffic --
or potentially a ticket. Then he heard about a navigation app called Waze.
"Waze saves me a few minutes of commute every day, with five days a week
and 50 weeks a year, that adds up," Nehren says. "I use Waze to help me
find the quickest way out of two or three alternative routes to get to work
and back home."
The app, now about a decade old, functions by collecting map data, travel
times and traffic information from users, who can report accidents, traffic
jams and police activity. A small Israeli startup, Waze was bought by
Google in 2013 for approximately $1 billion. Its 500,000 volunteer map
editors globally keep its maps updated, but the app is centered on
information provided by its users, according to company spokeswoman Terry
Wei.
"It's our community of 100 million users around the world that make up the
magic that is Waze," she says. "The information ensures that our maps
always have the most up-to-date information, improving the driving
experience for everyone."
Well, maybe not everyone.
A city council member in Los Angeles this month wrote a letter to the city
attorney seeking possible legal action in response to what he describes as
threats to public safety caused by Waze technology. The lawmaker, David
Ryu, has been speaking up about the issue since he was elected in 2015.
According to Ryu, many of the shortcuts suggested by Waze end up causing
more traffic in an effort to cut travel times by using side roads, leading
drivers to make unsafe turns and often unpermitted traffic directions. In
one case, Ryu mentioned, a street designed for local use is handling over
650 cars an hour. This, he said, has trapped several residents in their
driveways and has led to multiple accidents.
"Waze has upended our City's traffic plans, residential neighborhoods, and
public safety for far too long," Ryu said in his April 17 letter. "If we do
nothing, Waze will lead us on a race to the bottom -- where traffic plans
are ignored and every street is gridlocked."
The council member proposed collaboration between the private sector,
namely Waze and Google, with the public sector to alleviate this ongoing
issue. Ryu spokesman Estevan Montemayor says the council member's office
has attempted to bring Waze to the table to work collaboratively.
"The councilman supports technology and alternative modes of
transportation," Montemayor says. "This is not an attack on technology. We
hope Waze takes some responsibility for some of the problems their app is
creating, and they should have legitimate concerns regarding these issues
because city officials have been dealing with them day in and day out."
The company insists that it is "committed to helping cities and citizens
navigate efficiently and safely."
"It's important to note that Waze does not 'control' traffic but our maps
do reflect public roads that federal and local authorities have identified
and built for its citizens. If the city identifies a dangerous condition,
it is their responsibility to legally reclassify a road, which will then be
reflected on the Waze map," she says.
Uri Levine, co-founder and former president of Waze, defends his brainchild
even more plainly, saying the backlash is unwarranted and Waze facilitates
navigation for the public good.
"All roads are the public domain and therefore the right of everyone to
use," Levine says. "In that sense, Waze redistributes traffic to create a
better traffic situation for everyone."
He says that when he was starting Waze, he and his team were trying to
"solve big problems and to create a lot of value for a lot of people."
"We started back in 2007 with a clear vision of helping drivers outsmart
traffic," he says.
But that was a long time ago in the tech world -- two years even before the
founding of Uber, a company that would revolutionize the transportation
sector with its rideshare app that allowed ordinary motorists to connect
with passengers who needed transportation and to make a few bucks in the
process. The rideshare industry was a boon for Waze, as motorists -- who
often had less knowledge of their surroundings than a cab driver might --
turned to the app to find the fastest and the least congested routes. In
fact, demand for such a product prompted Uber to develop its own that can
be accessed from within its own app -- a helpful feature for its drivers.
"Drivers frequently cite the convenience of not having to switch between
apps during trips as a big reason for choosing Uber's in-app navigation,"
Uber spokesman Michael Amodeo says.
With steadily increasing usage and more navigation apps popping up, more
motorists are being directed to less crowded streets across the country.
Hundreds of people on freeways usually try to use side roads as a result of
rerouting apps such as Waze, Google Maps, INRIX and Apple Maps, according
to Alexandre Bayen, director of the Transportation Initiative at the
University of California, Berkeley. These roads are not equipped to handle
heavy volumes of traffic, which is why it ends up being an issue.
"If only a few people are drinking water from a river, it isn't a problem,"
Bayen says. "But if there are a million people at the river, there will be
no more water. The same thing applies to routing apps. With only a few
people using the apps, there is no problem. Now, everyone is using them so
there is no more capacity."
The result has been traffic displacement -- and anger -- that is not
limited to Los Angeles.
In San Mateo, California, residents are complaining about Waze directing
drivers into their neighborhoods to avoid construction delays. In Fremont,
California, delayed traffic signals on main boulevards and rush-hour turn
restrictions were imposed to deter Waze users. In Brookhaven, Georgia, the
city council approved various traffic-reducing measures such as partially
closed roads to thwart Waze users. In Leonia, New Jersey, police closed 60
streets during rush hour because the streets were ill-equipped to handle
the volume of traffic directed to them.
And in 2016, in Takoma Park, Maryland, residents went to great lengths to
prevent Waze drivers from flooding their roads during a bridge
reconstruction project. A Takoma Park man reportedly started reporting
phantom wrecks and traffic jams on his street before Waze banned him.
"Waze is meant to be interactive so people put information about roadblocks
to trick the software," says Daryl Braithwaite, public works director in
Takoma Park.
The solution to this problem, according to Hani Mahmassani, transportation
expert at Northwestern University, is a method called closed-loop
prediction. Closed-loop prediction could predict traffic scenarios, taking
into account the information provided as well as the potential behaviors
and responses to the information.
"An entity like Waze doesn't do closed-loop prediction because they're not
in the business of managing traffic," Mahmassani says. "They're in the
business of providing information."
Access restriction is a viable alternative to the congestion caused by
rerouting apps, according to Bayen. Restricted access to specific
neighborhoods during certain times of the day may alleviate the traffic.
But, the broader question, he says, is how can the situation be regulated.
"There's nothing inherently wrong with routing apps, but the problem is
overuse," Bayen says. "Like the river example, when people are competing
for the same commodity, if it's not regulated, there will be chaos."
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