The traffic app Waze is a boon for many Los Angeles drivers looking to detour around the city’s congested freeways since it relies on crowdsourced data to determine what streets are busy and how you can avoid the congestion.
But if you’re a resident of a neighborhood like Silver Lake or Echo Park, where many Waze users have been routed, you might be frustrated that your once quiet residential street is now lined with traffic during rush hour.
The City of Los Angeles, after hearing from residents of impacted neighborhoods for months and even once threatening legal action against Waze, voted yesterday to approve a pilot program to redirect traffic from smaller residential streets. For its part, Waze would restrict the streets where it directs users in exchange for a data agreement between the city and mobile mapping app developers.
If you are a resident of one of these neighborhoods where surface streets have become congested because of traffic from Waze and other mobile apps, or are someone who uses Waze, we want to hear what you think about this pilot program. Call us at 866-893-5722.
Guests:
Paul Krekorian, Los Angeles City Councilmember representing District 2, which stretches from Studio City to Sun Valley; he introduced the motion to study the negative impact of Waze directing traffic in neighborhoods; he tweets @PaulKrekorian
Alexandre M. Bayen, chair and director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Berkeley; he’s an expert on navigation apps and their impact on congestion and traffic; professor of electrical engineering and computer science; he tweets @alexandrebayen