Waze rerouting prompts New Jersey suburb to impose fines on non-residents using its streets

[Cal Jeffrey]

Navigation apps and gadgets have grown in popularity. What started as simple mapping applications that could get you from point A to point B are now able to take in reported driving conditions and reroute your commute to avoid traffic jams.

As these driving assistants become ubiquitous, other problems are coming to light. One issue is that sometimes the rerouting algorithms can pass large volumes of traffic through areas where it is not necessarily welcome.

For example, the town of Leonia, a small suburb in New Jersey with a population of less than 9,000, sits near two major interstates. Traffic on these highways is a nightmare during rush hour so apps like Waze route users through Leonia. The heavy traffic cutting through has created its own traffic jam within the small town. It has gotten so severe that many residents have found themselves stuck in their driveways.

"In the morning, if I sign onto my Waze account, I find there are 250,000 ‘Wazers’ in the area," Leonia Police Chief Tom Rowe told Hot Hardware. "When the primary roads become congested, it directs vehicles into Leonia and pushes them onto secondary and tertiary roads."

"There are 250,000 ‘Wazers’ in the area [during rush hour]."

If the traffic were a sporadic incident, it might have gone overlooked. However, rush hour on I-80 and I-95 results in traffic backups multiple times a day which causes apps to detour through the suburb.

The problem has resulted in the town closing off around 60 streets and roads in the area to non-resident traffic during rush hour. The rules will be enforced by the issuance of yellow stickers to residents. Anyone driving through town without a yellow sticker during rush hour will be pulled over and cited. The fine for the offense is set at $200.

The law has not gone into effect yet so if you shortcut through Leonia, you have until January 22 to find an alternate route.

"Would I prefer not to do this? Of course," noted Rowe. "But I would rather try something and fail than not try anything."

A spokesperson for Waze said it would cooperate with the town and work to find substitute paths through the area.

"If a road is legally reclassified into a private road, our map editors will make that change," said Waze. "It is our goal to work holistically with our community of drivers, map editors, and city contacts to improve the driving experience for all."

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/72458-waze-rerouting-prompts-new-jersey-suburb-impose-fines.html

 

[VitalyT]

It's like constantly finding your toilet clogged by someone, even though you are living alone.

A pathetic and dubious attempt to avoid the traffic, as it is not exactly legal to ban cars from passing through. Only the army forces are allowed to do so in the form of a curfew, or the police during an actual accident, while traffic doesn't constitute one.

 

[TomSEA]

A pathetic and dubious attempt to avoid the traffic, as it is not exactly legal to ban cars from passing through. Only the army forces are allowed to do so in the form of a curfew, or the police during an actual accident, while traffic doesn't constitute one.

Not true. I work for a city government and they very much have the ability to restrict/ban traffic via city ordinance. I've seen it done a number of times. I'm sure you've seen road signs that say, "Residential Traffic Only." That's a perfect example of a city restricting traffic on their roads based on traffic loads.

 

[matrix86]

It's like constantly finding your toilet clogged by someone, even though you are living alone.

A pathetic and dubious attempt to avoid the traffic, as it is not exactly legal to ban cars from passing through. Only the army forces are allowed to do so in the form of a curfew, or the police during an actual accident, while traffic doesn't constitute one.

Pretty sure you'd be singing a different tune if you were one of the residents who couldn't even leave their house because rush hour traffic created a backup in your neighborhood. Also, neighborhoods are generally privately owned, which means that, yes, they legally can do this. Many neighborhoods have gates up to keep unwanted traffic from coming in.

And, this is also very dangerous. If traffic gets backed up on a street and neighborhood and someone in that neighborhood were to need emergency assistance, emergency vehicles would have a hard time getting through and it would take them longer.

 

[DelJo63]

Knee-jerk over reaction IMO. How many times does the interstate stack-up precisely at a location that causes rerouting thru Leonia? Certainly not every night - - unlikely even once/week. Yeah, when it stinks - - it stinks, but that's the price of commuting. You ought to see NORMAL commute times in L.A. let alone when it all goes South-in-a-handbasket.

If you want isolation, then move to the country where the closest town is 5mi away and the population is under 5k.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Easy fix if the neighborhoods were changed to only have one entrance. Large communities have had these issues for a long time, and have learned to deal with them. This small community can learn from their restructuring.

 

[DelJo63]

Easy fix if the neighborhoods were changed to only have one entrance. Large communities have had these issues for a long time, and have learned to deal with them. This small community can learn from their restructuring.

:GRIN: (y) There will never be a reroute using a one-way-in and ZERO-out!!!
Brilliant Cliff

 

[EClyde]

LAWSUIT ! NJ got to do something they going broke due to policy. This will help

 

[GreenNova343]

Knee-jerk over reaction IMO. How many times does the interstate stack-up precisely at a location that causes rerouting thru Leonia? Certainly not every night - - unlikely even once/week. Yeah, when it stinks - - it stinks, but that's the price of commuting. You ought to see NORMAL commute times in L.A. let alone when it all goes South-in-a-handbasket.

If you want isolation, then move to the country where the closest town is 5mi away and the population is under 5k.

Don't live in New Jersey myself, but in my area there are certain "problem areas" for the Interstates & the Outer Belt that have slowdowns & congestion in the same spot every day, & invariably an accident in those locations at least twice a week (if not more). And the slowdowns/accidents tend to happen at the same times of the day, because most people work similar schedules & end up driving to/from work at the same time. And whenever there's a major issue (I.e. lane closures due to accidents or roadwork), the "back roads" & non-Interstate alternates immediately start slowing down & backing up because no one wants to wait in dead-stopped traffic.

So, I wouldn't be surprised one bit to find that this is at least a once-a-week, if not at least once-a-day, occurance for this town.

 

[Montana]

I wonder if they've contacted the programmers at Waze to maybe have them send them to different random routes to cut down on congestion. I realize that this would take time to reprogram the software but just a thought.

 

[ShagnWagn]

If you take my taxes to spend on a road, I have the right to use my own tax money and drive on that road. If a city wants its own roads, they need to pay for their own roads, then they can have a say. How about actually fix the main roads so there isn't a problem in the first place? The city planners are partially at fault for this, so they need to look inwards, not outwards.

 

[Danny101]

The solution is too draconian. Get with the app makers to assign detour routes or remove roads from route unless an address from the neighborhood is programmed. There might be legitimate outside traffic going into those areas.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

I wonder if they've contacted the programmers at Waze to maybe have them send them to different random routes to cut down on congestion. I realize that this would take time to reprogram the software but just a thought.

The solution is too draconian. Get with the app makers to assign detour routes or remove roads from route unless an address from the neighborhood is programmed. There might be legitimate outside traffic going into those areas.

Last three sentences of the article:
A spokesperson for Waze said it would cooperate with the town and work to find substitute paths through the area.
"If a road is legally reclassified into a private road, our map editors will make that change," said Waze. "It is our goal to work holistically with our community of drivers, map editors, and city contacts to improve the driving experience for all."

 

[Danny101]

Last three sentences of the article:
A spokesperson for Waze said it would cooperate with the town and work to find substitute paths through the area.
"If a road is legally reclassified into a private road, our map editors will make that change," said Waze. "It is our goal to work holistically with our community of drivers, map editors, and city contacts to improve the driving experience for all."

Noted. But they apparently have already gone beyond that option. Everything operates like a pendulum swing with unintended consequences. There always seems to be a negative that crops up with new conveniences.