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Waze for Bicycles

Post by niahartman
I have read several posts about how difficult it is to report moving hazards such as tractors or bikes or strings of bicycles (pelotons). You can't track a hazard that is on its own variable route.

Don't consider Bikers as Hazards, let us be Wazers.
Give us new icons that don't track speed, just location.

Let me change my Icon to a single bike or a pack of bikes. (lots of packs will indicate a peloton) As I travel along, all the Waze users around me would see that there is a slow moving (22mph) pack of bikes on the road. Bikers would love the safety and, bingo, you have tens of thousands new Waze users in a week. Waze wouldn't need to track our times or speed, just post our locations. It would add a large benefit with a low computing load. We bikers already have our Digifit, iMapMyRIDE, TrailGuru and other tailored route calculators that also track our heartrates, calories, etc., but these don't help with safety or our interaction with traffic. There would be no technology overlap so bikers will want to use Waze in conjunction with, not in competition with their other programs. You could even invite street sweepers to use the app with their own icons. This instant advertising with city governments would lower their exposure to accidents.

Adding New Icons with current location but no speed-tracking or route-calculations would increase awareness of non-car traffic and make it safer for all.

How is that for a newbie idea? I really can't put any more colors on my bike jersey to help cars see me better. A Waze dot makes me more visible when I ride and helps me see other bikes when I drive. Thanks for the great app.
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Post by BB6886
I'll definitely like a Waze for Bike mode

as there are lots of new bike paths in my commute to work, that i'd like to map out
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Post by fvwazing
I would not rely on Waze for collision-avoidance. Even in the best-Wazed areas of the world chances are a 100 to 1 that you will be scooped by a non-Wazer.
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Post by niahartman
Of course you can't rely on it but if you see a bunch of bike icons ahead you might be a little more alert than normal. Every little bit helps. I can see this being a must-have for bikers though. It could be a really dedicated bunch of new users to Waze. I know I would make my husband and kids use it any time they were riding too.
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Post by niahartman
I don't drive much so I just got around to signing up. My hubby has a crown though.
You are right that a whole lot of those icons could plug up the screen. It would take some creative iconogrophy to come up with a decent size for a single bike but smaller dot icons for group riders. If we left it to the riders then they might not choose the best size icon but as Waze users they probably will learn to use the right one. It would take more coding to make bike icons shrink when they get near each other.
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Post by RickW-NC
I like the idea of a mini-waze to be used as "markers" for slower moving traffic. The high function in waze is very hard on batteries and a lot of us run with car chargers plugged in. I would not look forward to a group of 100 slow wazers on my screen. I have seen rides get strung out over miles so the idea of a lead and tail wazer does not seem to help much either. Another good problem to think about!!!
p.s. try it in your car!!!
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