Posted on 06/06/2016 4:17:05 PM PDT by dennisw
“It used to be that only locals knew all the cut-through routes, but Google Maps and Waze are letting everyone know,”
When population growth began to overwhelm a set of major intersections in his district, there was an increase of 45,000 cars a day on some residential streets, as app-armed commuters fought their way to nearby Interstate 85. In response, the city is posting signs to restrict left or right turns at key intersections.
____________________________
When the traffic on Timothy Connor’s quiet Maryland street suddenly jumped by several hundred cars an hour, he knew who was partly to blame: the disembodied female voice he could hear through the occasional open window saying, “Continue on Elm Avenue . . . .”
The marked detour around a months-long road repair was several blocks away. But plenty of drivers were finding a shortcut past Connor’s Takoma Park house, slaloming around dog walkers and curbside basketball hoops, thanks to Waze and other navigation apps.
“I could see them looking down at their phones,” said Connor, a water engineer at a federal agency. “We had traffic jams, people were honking. It was pretty harrowing.”
So Connor borrowed a tactic he read about from the car wars of Southern California and other traffic-weary regions: He became a Waze impostor. Every rush hour, he went on the Google-owned social-media app and posted false reports of a wreck, speed trap or other blockage on his street, hoping to deflect the flow.
He continued his guerrilla counterattack for two weeks before the app booted him off, apparently detecting a saboteur in its ranks. That made Connor a casualty in the social-media skirmishes erupting across the country as neighborhoods try to contend with suddenly savvy drivers finding their way on routes that were once all but secret.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
“Waze rocks.”
It does...sometimes. On other times, it’s so stupid, it couldn’t even make the distance correct. One time in Hollywood, you input the data and it set the course for San Fran.
I prefer Google Maps, and the voice telling you when to turn is the edge over Waze. Damn waze tells you when to turn when the exit is 10 feet away from you and cant manuever into the next lane..
That is not the point. If there’s a safety issue then it’s up to the department of roads or whomever to have signs denoting residential area, no thoroughfare. Individuals cannot act as some road commission and arbitrarily start restricting traffic. An individual trying to prevent through traffic and in a way causes an accident they can be held liable.
Yeah but it’s not up to the residents to restrict whatever traffic, it’s up to some commission or road something or other to put up signage denoting a residential street. Usually side streets just wander about and are not a straight shot through. I’m just saying that the residents have to take it up with whomever is responsible for traffic safety. If individual residents take it upon themselves to somehow block road access through and wind up causing an accident then they’ll be held liable.
It’s a double-edge sword, but the least should be that speed limits and other rules of using a residential street be enforced.
I grew up in Cuyahoga Falls.
L
I wasn’t talking about the merits of his opposition. I was responding to your statement
“They’re public roads paid for with fuel and registration taxes.”
seeming to imply that you didn’t think he should have a problem with extra traffic (45,000 a day) in his neighborhood since the streets were ‘public roads paid for with fuel and registration taxes.’
L,
I’m down in Stow every day taking care of my best bud’s cats whilst he tours in Europe. Maybe you’ve heard of him;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Zaza
He’s is one of the FACELESS bureaucrats that try to ruin our lives!
I also worked for famous pedal steel player Jerry Brightman (RIP) at the Performance Pedal Steel Factory in the Falls. Last ladyfriend lived there too!
There was a case where a homeowner was upset over the increase in traffic and actually doing the speed limit so he goes out one night and puts up a speed bump almost in front of his house. So of course here comes a regular driver/whatever and one night hits that thing and goes flying. Long story short the guy had to sell his house to pay for the lawsuit.
I'm saying you can't act as a vigilante in cases like this.
I deal in this type of stuff almost daily at my job. A few thoughts:
The Planning Departments of this world despise cul-de-sacs. There’s something too individualistic, too private, too oppositional to shared misery. So they discourage cul-de-sacs. And, they take it a step further, and encourage ‘connectivity’. Connectivity is just what you would expect it to be. Instead of building a development with really only one way in and one way out, they want the neighborhood to connect to all neighborhoods around it (or leave connections to do so in the future if no adjacent neighborhoods exist).
You see, in a planner’s eye, it is a bad thing that traffic hits collectors, arterials, and interstates...and people move about the city on high speed corridors, without experiencing the ‘flavor’ of the community. Sounds high minded...sounds like they are pleased with themselves for encouraging this.
And then you have unintended consequences :(
These local streets really aren’t made for high traffic volumes, and there are some things that can be done. ‘Traffic Calming Devices’ include features such as narrow lanes, small roundabouts, and speed bumps (although the firemen complain about those). Now for something as temporary as this construction project, I’m actually shocked the local policja haven’t discovered this revenue making opportunity.
Life is tough but, my taxes pay for those streets,as well the HOV lane.
I feel for the residents but, I have always found routes around congestion.
Waze makes it easier but, also gives me some reassurance I will arrive at my appointment on time.
I knew some dirt roads I would take when the freeway was jammed. One day a got behind a couple of Ferraris that didn’t know the the road turned to rutted dirt. It takes a long time to find your way around every rut and dip in a dirt road. They had to stop and get a move rocks several times. And no passing room for other vehicles,
Note: If you drive a fancy sports car tell Waze to avoid dirt roads.
Well when they fill up Waze with tell them to go another way
Government worker attempting to rule the world shocker! Exactly what water is the federal government constitutionally authorized to engineer? Or is this supercilious wannabe hacker the one telling people that puddles are 'wetlands?'
Also the commuters he is trying to reroute out of his neighborhood are his fellow Federal drones
I get exactly what you are saying about our over reaching Federal Gov't. 10 Amendment and more. Just think of The Feds as our largest jobs program for liberals and affirmative action babies
I had a friend working for a large northern city and as we were joking around he admitted that the city government existed for the benefit of the (connected) employees, not the taxpayers.
I have indeed!
It was a wonderful place to grow up in the 1960s.
L
We need more chain immigration and open lawless borders with millions more flooding it.
That should alleviate these traffic issues.
My road was paid for by the first homeowners on the road. The road is now maintained by my city taxes. So unless you own a house on my street and live in my town of 4,000 you did not pay to build or maintain anything.
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