Waze Hijacked L.A. in the Name of Convenience
A nice quote from the article - &quot;The mayor spoke proudly of this shining example of the city’s “data initiative,” and how the Waze partnership would “get people where they want to go, faster.”&quot;  followed by a dissatisfaction that it did not result in people getting sent to the roadways that the traffic planners wanted to.<p>Guess what, people would absolutely get sent to the major roadways if (and only if!) those roadways would actually get people where they want to go, faster. If those roadways suck compared to the alternatives, then that points towards a duty of the major to improve those major roadways (which are obviously overwhelmed even after Waze helps by redirecting some traffic off of them), not a duty to drivers to simply suffer every day while sitting in a traffic jam on the &quot;gov&#x27;t recommended&quot; route or the likes of Waze to keep mum about better alternatives.<p>The article mentions the &#x27;LA Complete Streets Official Guide&#x27; listing which streets the planners designated as arterial vs non-arterial - guess what, if there&#x27;s a mismatch between the plan and how people can reach their destinations most efficiently, then <i>it is the plan that&#x27;s wrong and needs to change</i>, not the drivers. If you plan and build a wider, &quot;faster&quot; arterial route that&#x27;s actually a huge diversion and drivers take shortcuts instead of following your route, well, too bad you wasted a bunch of money building a road noone needs based on a bad plan, it&#x27;s not the fault of drivers that this road doesn&#x27;t suit their needs.<p>The city was free to use its partnership with Waze to determine where to <i>build</i>(improve&#x2F;widen&#x2F;regulate) roads and intersections that would be a better fit for how people want to travel. However, instead of <i>listening</i> to the people through that data, they wanted to use it to <i>tell</i> people how to get where they want to be in a  way that suits interests of city planners instead of the driver - and that&#x27;s not how it works.