Weather hazards
Fog, hail, rain, snow. That's it. Why aren't flood and tornado on this list? Think about it....if it rains and rains and rains and rains (especially for an hour here in San Antonio) the roads flood and it usually makes it impossible to cross a road. As a wazer, I would like to know that. Around San Antonio, there are gates which activate when water in the area reaches a certain area. These gates block people from going down that road until the water level goes down. Actually, if it rains here in San Antonio, the lower levels to the interstates are prone to flooding and SAPD will shut down the level of the interstate and it will remain closed for about 6 hours or so.
Tornados? Think about this, too. There are many storm chasers from the professionals (like on the Discovery Channel) to the amateurs (I know 3 personally) who are out there in the bad weather catching the storm and chasing it around the state as it's on the ground. They are constantly reporting to 911 or news channels that there is a tornado on the ground. If they're using Waze, they could report it and those who are trying to get home know that a tornado is on the ground and to stay away from the area.
Another thought I just had on tornado reporting. If a tornado is reported, can Waze be configured to send an alert to everyone who uses Waze within X amount of miles from the report? If we look back at last year as tornados ripped through the DFW area, we will see video footage showing the tornado ripping through a truck storage lot, but what we will also see is the amount of traffic on the highways because this tornado struck during the afternoon rush hour. The DFW area has a population of 6.6 million people. Let's assume 40% of the population is not workforce related. That's 2.6 million people who are going to/from work everyday. Out of that 2.6 million, let's assume that 20% of those use Waze on their commutes to/from work, so that's 528,000 who are on the roads of the DFW Metroplex trying to get to/from work. If a tornado alert came through the app, they would be able to avoid the area, call loved ones to get them out of the path of the tornado, etc. It would also be the first GPS app to actually give weather alerts.
I'm just throwing both of these out there.
Tornados? Think about this, too. There are many storm chasers from the professionals (like on the Discovery Channel) to the amateurs (I know 3 personally) who are out there in the bad weather catching the storm and chasing it around the state as it's on the ground. They are constantly reporting to 911 or news channels that there is a tornado on the ground. If they're using Waze, they could report it and those who are trying to get home know that a tornado is on the ground and to stay away from the area.
Another thought I just had on tornado reporting. If a tornado is reported, can Waze be configured to send an alert to everyone who uses Waze within X amount of miles from the report? If we look back at last year as tornados ripped through the DFW area, we will see video footage showing the tornado ripping through a truck storage lot, but what we will also see is the amount of traffic on the highways because this tornado struck during the afternoon rush hour. The DFW area has a population of 6.6 million people. Let's assume 40% of the population is not workforce related. That's 2.6 million people who are going to/from work everyday. Out of that 2.6 million, let's assume that 20% of those use Waze on their commutes to/from work, so that's 528,000 who are on the roads of the DFW Metroplex trying to get to/from work. If a tornado alert came through the app, they would be able to avoid the area, call loved ones to get them out of the path of the tornado, etc. It would also be the first GPS app to actually give weather alerts.
I'm just throwing both of these out there.
Re: Weather hazards