It is one of the most popular GPS navigation applications in the world. Created in 2008 and purchased by Google in 2013 for almost a billion dollars, Waze guides millions of drivers every day.
The application has more than 140 million users worldwide, of which 17 million in France alone. Its principle? Offering the fastest route, nothing very original for a navigation service.
Except Waze won’t hesitate to send you to small streets, small towns or villages, which in most cases will save you precious time, although sometimes just a few minutes.
What is the “Waze effect”?
One of the consequences of these alternative routes is the “Waze effect”, that is, small streets sometimes invaded by cars during rush hours or when they go on vacation. And concerned residents who don’t much appreciate seeing their neighborhoods transformed into an alternative route to busy main roads. Noise pollution, pollution, risks for pedestrians and especially for children… Many of them have been really fed up for several years.
Waze is thus trapped in its own game: recognized for its generally reliable forecasts of arrival times and proposed routes to get there, the application can also be the cause of significant traffic jams.
A study from the University of Berkeley published in 2018 and cited in an article in Le Monde analyzed the issue. Interesting conclusion: traffic jams form when more than 20% of motorists use applications like Waze while following circuitous routes.
These municipalities that react
Faced with this problem, several cities have taken measures. In the United States, the town of Leonia, New Jersey, for example, decided in December 2017 to limit traffic on certain streets to residents in the morning, from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., and at the end of the day, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. . to 9 pm An alternative route used to be taken by many motorists working in New York.
“Route calculators like Waze, Google Maps and others are there to offer the fastest route, but it is not usually the most appropriate,” Pierre Ouallet, deputy mayor of Bègles delegate for the ecological transition, summarizes on BFMTV. Its city of 31,000 inhabitants, within the Bordeaux metropolis, has seen traffic conditions deteriorate in recent years.
“We have traffic jams that can be created on the ring roads or on boulevards and we have traffic transfers on neighborhood streets that are not adequate at all. On certain streets, this represents 1,000 vehicles per day passing in front of a school.”
Therefore, the municipality revised the traffic plan in consultation with residents of the area in question. Two years later, the first positive effects were observed: by converting some streets to one-way, for example, traffic decreased significantly.
“In general, the challenges consisted of limiting transit traffic, which we achieved with almost 3,000 fewer vehicles per day, and calming pedestrian and cyclist traffic, especially near schools,” concludes the deputy mayor of Bègles.
The city of Lieusaint (Seine-et-Marne) has also adapted its traffic plan, installing traffic lights and changing some traffic directions, placing the city at a limit of 30 km/h. Measures that have had a visible impact, testifies the mayor of this municipality in the Paris region, Michel Bison, interviewed by Le Monde.
“On ignore if we demand ont été prises en compte. All ce qu’on sait, c’est que Waze a accepté de retirer les itinéraires à proximité des écoles, les habitants avaient peur pour la sécurité de leurs enfants, explain-t- He.
The elected official congratulates himself on the recent slight improvement in the situation, although he is still not completely satisfied. While the app can adapt its algorithm and exclude certain routes, it seems that it is rather these modifications to traffic plans that can, in the long term, divert these alternative routes used by some local residents.
Source: BFM TV
