One of the Waze's main goals is to save its users from being smashed into a traffic jam, rather navigated around it (whenever possible and useful). But there is a small catch22 - it is not possible to detect a traffic jam unless someone discovers it by driving through, and it is not possible to tell "'there' is no traffic jam anymore", unless someone drives through.

After paving a new road (especially by the client, using the "steamroller", but also by an editor, using the web application), it is necessary to drive along this road, to confirm its existence for the system. Because it is important, the confirmation drives are rewarded by the system using the 'cookie munching' concept.

I believe that, because of its importance, driving through a traffic jam should be rewarded (or recompensed?) as well, slightly better than simple driving through existing 'clean' roads. Each drive, which 'creates' a traffic jam, that will get confirmed later by someone else's driving through; and each drive through an 'existing' traffic jam (regardless of whether it gets confirmed once more, or cleared thereafter).

On the INTL server, 'online' driving on existing roads is rewarded by 3.2 points per km (for confirming the roads existence, and also reporting the existing traffic situation there, including the vital speed data). I've found out, that, formerly, the 'offline' driving on existing roads has been rewarded by 1.6 points per km (I suppose because no useful traffic information got reported, just the existence of the driven roads and the speed profile with a substantial delay). Driving through a traffic jam might be rewarded similarly better, by 4.8 points per km, or equivalently (approx. 7.725 points per mile?) on the NA server.

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If you consider this idea worth your vote - here you are: http://waze.uservoice.com/forums/59225- ... raffic-jam