Sorry to report this, but as I was traveling Saturday from Charlotte, NC to Wilmington, DE, my Waze app directed me into some of the worst traffic that I can remember in the DC area. And not just that, Waze omitted important directions, such as not speaking up to tell me to continue on Route 40 East at a critical point.
I’m very disappointed in Waze due to these faux pas, and will remove it from my phone. I feel sad, as I liked it up until I really needed it. Guess I’m going to go back to Traffic for Google Maps.
No really, it isn’t perfect, and waze gathers traffic data from YOU. It failed once and that’s it? Sorry dude, but think about it and how it works. Nothing is perfect and Google almost never routes around traffic. Waze is far far far more aggressive when routing around traffic.
Haven driven the I-95 corridor for years and most recently just this month going from TN to MD along the beltway, I can tell you that NO program will allow you to totally avoid traffic in the DC area. It is just impossible since there is usually traffic EVERYWHERE. The best you can hope for is to minimize your time spent in traffic.
Now there may be map problems making it worse. And the lack of a continue instruction is the perfect example of a change you yourself could help make to prevent that issue for yourself and others in the future.
That is the power of Waze. You yourself can help to improve things.
The thing about Waze is sometimes it routes you around the traffic and sometimes you are the traffic. Sorry, but that is the way it is. You can not be the only benificiary out of a social based program like Waze. Everyone needs to pitch in and help the community. This time you helped others be routed around the traffic. It was your turn to be the little red hen.
to the original poster, feel free to go and spend lots of money on a GPS with traffic data, or another smartphone app like Tom Tom with traffic subscription and compare them as I have… Waze has the leg up on those apps as in my unscientific observation, Waze was generally much quicker about reporting issues and offering alternatives; and this in spite of Tom Tom having tens of millions of users… even if Waze it gets it wrong once in a while, I can live with that; especially at this price (FREE!), where as I would be really ticked with an expensive paid service that often fails as well.
TomTom sources their information from the radios and the trafic control agencies. When those people get in the mill the traffic jam has most likely been there for an hour at least already. And they are also slow to report that the traffic jam has indeed been lifted.
The advantage of waze is that the second someone is stuck in traffic in a jam, they can report it and all the other wazers coming from the back can get routed away from it and hopefully to a better/faster route.
All of you make great points. I guess I was the red hen this time. Indeed, we get what we pay for.
On a positive note…with me being the persistent type, I tried Waze again. Yes, curiosity and experimentation are what drive me…pardon the pun
This time, I was heading up to the Hamilton Train Station in NJ to pick up my son. I had too much time to kill after work, so I searched Waze for a highly rated restaurant in Hamilton, NJ. It led me to a very busy and nice place called Jojo’s and it was great! From there, after some nice conversations, hot wings and a few beers, I was only a few minutes away from the train station. Perfect!
Waze warned me of many hazards and obstacles in and along the road on the way and back, as well as warned me about quite a few policemen waiting to dole out tickets, if it were not for other Wazers warning me way ahead of time.
So I guess I’m going to have to give Waze another chance, and take the bad with the good. It’s a community based service, which I like, and it’s up to all of us to make it better.
Thanks to all of you for your very kind and supportive replies.
Glad you came to the dark side, OP. Keep in mind that waze gathers information from YOU. If you are driving down the road, and there is a jam that no waze user has been in, waze doesn’t know about it. Obviously that gets fixed more or less with more users. Also, if there is something wrong in the maps, YOU can fix it. Waze is crowdsourced. If there is a problem, we NEED you to fix it!
Indeed, we get what we pay for.