Waze Using Side Streets Around Standstill Traffic

[CBenson]

Would you mind telling us where you are? I'd be interested to know how the streets that Motion X takes you on are classed in waze.

Waze will route me over many different routes depending on the traffic on my commute. Waze doesn't always keep me on the freeway. But most of the alternatives around here have been classed as highway in waze.

[gettingthere]

What Im having an issue with is that Im not sure which one is wasting less gas, my traveling down streets for 30 miles and stopping at lights and traffic stops, or going down the freeway at 5-20 mph for 30 miles constantly.

What Waze should do it use the Waze traffic data, and INRIX traffic to make the best routes possible for us. Waze does an amazing job with ETA and telling us what is happening up the road, but not with the best possible routing.

Waze does not optimize routes to save fuel. By default, it's to save time. There are limitations to the alternative routes that Waze (and most other navigation applications) will give.

Waze is generally only using their own data for jam, route and ETA calculations. In order to use Inrix data, they would like have to pay for it and pass that cost back to the Waze community. Waze has stated that they want to keep the product free so they likely would not consider doing this.

[jrnavid]

What I probably will begin to do it drive with both Waze and Motion X opened at the same time. Because Motion X uses INRIX for traffic routing, I will be told to get off the freeway to avoid the traffic. This way, I can add routes to Waze using Motion X and INRIX and keep Waze free so that they don't have to pay for INRIX info. Motion X did charge me $9.99 for the year so might as well use it for our advantage.

I know Waze is not intended to save gas, but I think in general driving on the freeway instead of streets, saves gas, even in heavy traffic.

I have doubts though. I feel like I just take longer on the street routes. Idk, further testing will tell.

[AlanOfTheBerg]

I know Waze is not intended to save gas, but I think in general driving on the freeway instead of streets, saves gas, even in heavy traffic.

Depends on your car type. Hybrids do much better in heavy traffic in general, but even better on surface streets going at slow speeds with lots of stop-and-go.

[jrnavid]

No I don't have a hybrid. But I did notice that the two days ago when I used Waze and came down the freeway, in heavy traffic, my car wasted a little less gas. So maybe its true, but I will do more testing.

Also, how long does it take Waze to learn a route? If I drive it once, will it learn it then?

[dirgela]

It doesn't learn routes, only your speed will be taken into consideration, one time might be not enough to influence the average historical speed.

[jrnavid]

What? Thats not true. When you watch the tutorial videos, they say that maybe you want to drive a route because your favorite coffee shop is on the way, and waze will give you that option even if it is longer of slower that the one it suggests.

[CBenson]

Yes, the video shows a route that you take frequently showing in the alternative routes, but that feature hasn't worked (at least for me) for some time now.

[jrnavid]

Really? Thats strange. A glitch?

[RallyChris]

Not a glitch. Stated as not working in a long time ago post. That feature requires special code in post processing to figure out this stuff, and then the routing server to know to give that as an alternative.

I think it was turned off during the very dark days where route analysis was falling further and further behind. My guess is that It has not been re-enabled as it probably needs to be re-written for the infrastructure changes.