One of the biggest problems with Waze, at least in the UK and Europe, is that it tends to send people down roads not designed for heavy traffic.
Where I live, we are relatively lucky, as most of the residential streets are childrenâs play zones, so cars can drive at a maximum of walking pace. This means that Waze, and people in general, wonât use them, unless the main road is closed and there is an official diversion.
But in many towns, thousands of cars are poured by dodgy navigation software down residential streets, making residents lives a misery and making the roads too dangerous for children to play on, yet if the council threatens to close the roads to through traffic, drivers are up in arms about it - the residents are happy again, but all the drivers used to their cut-throughs into quiet roads claim it is prejudice against them, they donât seem to realise that their selfishness is making other peopleâs lives hell and they should be sticking to the main roads, or finding alternative methods of transport or travelling at different times.
I used to work a lot in other towns, and I knew, if I got to those towns for an 8 oâclock start, Iâd be sitting in grid-lock for an hour, but if I set of 20 minutes earlier, Iâd get into the office 30 minutes early and have hardly any traffic. Iâd rather sit in the office slurping a fresh coffee for 20 minutes, rather than spending an hour in a car going at under walking pace. Often, on a Friday, when traffic was even worse - I lived on the coast, so all the city would be pouring out down the motorway to the coast, Iâd take my motorbike and either filter, or Iâd take an alternative route; I usually saved around 3-4 hours in the summer on the drive home!
If I was working in central London, I wouldnât even bother trying to drive to work, Iâd just drive to the station and get the park-and-ride up into the smoke.
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