[ndaiger]

I live in Los Angeles near a lot of the construction going on for the new subway line running down Wilshire Blvd.

My neighborhood (Carthay) has been getting a lot more cut-through traffic. There are days that seem particularly "Waze-y", when it's basically just gridlock on our little streets for an hour. I imagine it's due to apps re-routing people.

But I don't really think it's any faster for the commuter. I'm reminded of this article (seemingly now password-protected, so I'll link to a summary) that Waze chronically underestimates your travel time, while Apple Maps chronically overestimates (and therefore overdelivers):

https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/02/22/informal-testing-...

From my anecdotal experience, Waze does vastly overestimate the benefits of a crazy route, like making a left turn from a stop sign across 6 lanes of rush-hour traffic.

[ghaff]

Google Maps does this too at times. It isn’t so much residential streets but I’ve had Google take me on windy country drives where I inevitably screw up.

[wyclif]

It's ludicrous that Los Angeles politicians are blaming Waze for this, when it's their own fault for failing to approve and build higher-volume and better roads. I smirk every time I read some bureaucrat blaming apps that demonstrably make our lives better instead of owning up to their own impotence and incompetence.

[bsagdiyev]

Have you been to Los Angeles? On what space do you expect them to do this on, without interrupting the already bad traffic and with what money? I'm genuinely curious as to your idea and how it would work.

[wyclif]

I've been there several times, and I'm aware of how difficult it would be. My comment wasn't predicated on the idea that improving traffic in LA would be painless—quite the opposite. In order to commit to proper urban planning, there are tradeoffs and the construction is disruptive and inconvenient for a time. But it must be done. And LA can afford to do it.

[bsagdiyev]

Inconvenient for a while is an understatement. It took them nearly 10 years to expand a portion of freeway from Temecula -> Riverside and it's honestly not helped at all, made it worse if anything. California may be good at some things but completing road work is not one of them. A recently repaved and widened portion of the 52 near me in San Diego feels like riding a roller coaster with all the dips it has.

[wpietri]

And even if they somehow do manage to do it, I'm not sure at all that any lasting improvement will be made. An urban planner friend tells me that people decide where to live based on commute time, not miles driven. So if you put in more roadway, people move to cheaper places farther out, using more road-miles than before, at least until the speeds drop back down. 

[nitrogen]

Isn't that just a sign that people need better housing options?

[wpietri]

I'm not sure what practical intervention you're suggesting there. We can rebuild existing buildings to be denser, but I'm not sure how you'd make that cheaper than a new suburban home, let alone as appealing to the kind of person who currently buys a new suburban home.

[well-here-we]

It ridiculous that waze is sending people into some of these neighborhoods. There’s no way people are saving time.

Waze is definitely a contributing factor. Blame can be shared.

[mcny]

Attacking Wade is treating a symptom though. We should be treating the underlying cause.