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As far as I could find on Google, in Spain our authorities do not use data from Waze or Google Maps to reorganize infrastructures. However, there is a small collaboration between Waze and the DGT (the authority that manages traffic and infrastructures in Spain) to use the app’s data to review traffic issues.

Nevertheless, there is also some tension between Waze and the DGT because app users can be informed about police locations and speed cameras. The DGT is seeking a solution to block this feature, arguing that it could encourage drivers to break the rules and cause accidents.

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La rebelión de Waze contra la DGT: cómo la app de navegación está cambiando el tráfico y la planificación de las ciudades

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La relación entre Waze y las administraciones como la DGT refleja el desafío que enfrentan las ciudades en la gestión del tráfico en la era digital.

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Do traffic apps still save time when everyone uses them?

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Do traffic apps still save time when everyone uses them?

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I think this is a very interesting article outlining benefits and drawbacks of real-tie traffic routing. Although they may seem helpful in finding a better, faster and less congested route, ultimately they send drivers onto other less appropriately adapted routes which may lead to disruption in small towns and may be dangerous for locals.

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In an era where smartphones are ubiquitous, navigation apps such as Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Waze have become indispensable tools for drivers worldwide. These apps leverage crowd-sourced data, real-time traffic updates, and sophisticated algorithms to suggest the fastest routes, ostensibly helping users avoid congestion and shave minutes-or even hours-off their travel times. But as adoption rates soar and virtually everyone relies on them, a pressing question emerges: Do these apps still deliver on their promise, or does widespread use create new problems that undermine their benefits? This article summarizes what experts, researchers, and studies have to say on the matter, drawing from academic analyses, simulations, and real-world data to assess the impact of these apps on travel efficiency. While experts note that they offer individual advantages, the collective effect on traffic systems can be more nuanced, sometimes leading to unintended consequences like increased congestion on alternative routes or even overall network inefficiencies.

How Traffic Apps Work and Their Intended Benefits

Experts explain that traffic navigation apps function by aggregating data from millions of users' devices, including GPS locations, speeds, and incident reports. Waze, for instance, stands out for its community-driven alerts on hazards like police presence or accidents, while Google Maps provides comprehensive mapping with integrated public transit options, and Apple Maps emphasizes seamless integration with iOS devices. Collectively, they aim to minimize travel time by rerouting users around bottlenecks. On an individual level, researchers indicate that these apps can indeed save time. For example, a former Uber researcher shared internal data from millions of trips showing that navigation apps generally reduce travel durations, though perceptions don't always match reality: Apple Maps outperformed Google Maps and Waze in actual speed, despite users believing Waze was superior due to its detailed traffic info. Broader environmental benefits have also been noted by experts, with apps like Google Maps potentially cutting emissions by distributing traffic more evenly and encouraging off-peak travel. User anecdotes, as reported in studies, reinforce this: one driver credited Waze with avoiding speeding tickets multiple times by alerting them to police, indirectly saving time and hassle. In urban experiments, integrating Waze data with AI platforms has even reduced accidents significantly, improving flow and safety, according to research findings. Moreover, experts highlight that apps help mitigate the unpredictability of journeys. By providing estimated times of arrival (ETAs) based on current conditions, they reduce the stress of uncertainty, allowing drivers to plan better. In one analysis, Google Maps' use of advanced neural networks has improved ETA accuracy, enhancing reliability.

The Drawbacks of Universal Adoption

However, experts warn that when adoption becomes near-universal, the dynamics shift. One major issue identified in studies is the diversion of traffic to minor roads and residential streets, which weren't designed for high volumes. Apps like Waze often recommend these "shortcuts" to bypass congested highways, leading to localized congestion, noise, and safety concerns. In the UK, traffic on minor roads grew 26% between 2010 and 2019 (from 108 to 136 billion vehicle miles), far outpacing the 12% increase on major roads, as per government reports. This growth is heterogeneous, concentrated near congested major routes, suggesting apps enable drivers without local knowledge to exploit these paths, effectively increasing network capacity but inducing additional traffic, according to analysts. This phenomenon ties into "induced demand," where improved efficiency encourages more trips or longer distances, negating time savings, as explained by transportation experts. For instance, widening the M25 motorway in the UK led to traffic surges beyond forecasts, with no lasting speed improvements, as local drivers diverted via apps to use the new capacity. Critics argue this undermines infrastructure investments and exacerbates environmental issues. Simulations conducted by researchers reveal further complexities. In a microscopic traffic model of Fremont, California, performance metrics like mean speed, travel time, and queue lengths improved when 30-60% of drivers used dynamic (app-guided) routing, but deteriorated at higher rates (90-100%), spreading congestion to previously clear areas. At 100% adoption, apps can recreate Braess's paradox, where adding route options ironically worsens overall flow by concentrating traffic selfishly, per mathematical models. Another study using a dynamical network flow model found that high compliance with app recommendations increases average travel times and leads to "partial demand transfer," where only a fraction of demand traverses the network, leaving the rest stuck at origins due to bottlenecks. This sub-optimality arises because apps prioritize individual optimization over system-wide equilibrium, echoing economic theories like the "price of anarchy," as noted by experts. User experiences, as documented in reports, reflect these pitfalls. Some complain that apps underestimate total trip times by ignoring parking searches or walking to/from vehicles, encouraging over-reliance on cars. Others note Waze's convoluted routes-avoiding multi-lane turns-sometimes lengthen commutes. In cities, apps have been blamed for flooding residential areas with traffic, prompting backlash like Low Traffic Neighborhoods (LTNs), according to urban planners.

Evidence from Studies and Real-World Data

Academic research provides a balanced view, according to experts. The Fremont simulation applied a Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR) model-borrowed from epidemiology-to congestion spread, finding the lowest "reproductive number" (R0, indicating persistence) at 40% dynamic routing, meaning congestion dissipates fastest at moderate adoption. Beyond this, propagation rates rise, prolonging jams. In the UK analysis, while apps improve individual ETAs and network operation (e.g., via dynamic signals reducing delays by 13% in London), they risk inefficiency without coordination, as per expert reviews. Proposals include regulating providers to share data with authorities for holistic optimization. Comparisons between apps show mixed results in studies. A 2018 test of 120 trips found Google Maps fastest in practice, despite Waze's claims. Uber's dataset echoed this, with Waze lagging due to overemphasis on backroads.

Conclusion: A Need for Smarter Integration

Experts agree that traffic apps like Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Waze undeniably help individuals avoid delays and navigate efficiently, especially at moderate adoption levels. However, as usage approaches universality, they can exacerbate congestion through route diversion, induced demand, and suboptimal equilibria, potentially increasing overall travel times and straining infrastructure. The sweet spot appears to be 30-60% dynamic routing, where benefits peak without overwhelming side effects, based on simulation data. Future improvements might involve app-authority collaboration, incorporating system-wide goals, or even incentives for eco-friendly routes, as suggested by researchers. Emerging technologies, like AI-driven platforms or crypto-integrated apps rewarding data sharing, could further evolve the landscape. Ultimately, while these apps remain valuable tools, their widespread use highlights the need for thoughtful policy and design to ensure they benefit the collective road network, not just the individual driver, according to expert consensus. As traffic systems grow more interconnected, balancing personal convenience with societal efficiency will be key to truly saving time.

1. Former Uber employee reveals the best map apps from Waze, Apple...

2. How Google uses AI to reduce stop-and-go traffic on your route

3. Waze Wants To Help You Avoid Tickets With New Feature - Forbes

4. Crash history alerts arrive to the Waze map

5. Traffic prediction with advanced Graph Neural Networks

6. Minor road traffic estimates review: technical report - GOV.UK

7. Latest evidence on induced travel demand: an evidence review

8. Impact of navigation apps on congestion and spread dynamics on a...

9. Braess' paradox - Wikipedia

10. Prediction Equilibrium for Dynamic Network Flows

11. Your Navigation App Is Making Traffic Unmanageable

12. Why does Google Maps sometimes take a different route than Waze...

13. Traffic growth on minor roads - TransportXtra

14. Study finds that Google Maps is fastest GPS service | Daily Mail Online

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Do Traffic Apps Still Save Time When Everyone Uses Them?

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Discover expert insights on whether traffic apps like Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Waze truly save time amid universal adoption. Explore research on congestion, induced demand, and navigation efficiency in 2025.

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I want to zoom in on “rat-running” — the phenomenon where drivers redirect from congested main routes via smaller, local streets, often once routing apps suggest those as “quicker” alternatives.

Why it happens:

Real-time routing favours avoiding congestion, so apps send drivers via any route with less delay.

Some alternative routes use residential or lightly trafficked streets that are narrow, without traffic calming, low signage.

Because many users follow similar algorithms, multiple cars redirected simultaneously overwhelm these small streets.

Problems this causes:

Safety risks: More traffic especially of unfamiliar drivers increases risk of accidents, particularly in areas with children, cyclists, pedestrians. Blind corners, narrower roads, lack of sidewalks etc make this worse.

Noise, pollution & quality of life: Increased traffic brings noise, emissions, possibly vibrations etc for residents.

Infrastructure unfit: Local roads often not designed for heavy or fast traffic. Potential for damage, more maintenance.

Disruption: Harder for residents to access their homes, disrupted parking, etc.

Equity & fairness: Residents didn’t choose to have their streets made into cut-throughs; often have least say or least ability to resist.

Possible mitigations:

Local authorities working with app providers to restrict routing via certain streets (e.g. excluding them or penalizing them).

Traffic calming measures: speed bumps, narrower lanes, chicanes, lower speed limits, signage, restricted access for non-local traffic.

Zoning / planning measures: design neighbourhoods so side-streets are less likely to be useful as cut-throughs.

Dynamic restrictions: access only allowed at certain times (e.g. rush hours) or for local permit-holders.

Better prediction & route balancing by routing apps: instead of simply suggesting the fastest route for each driver, algorithms could consider the cumulative impact and avoid overloading small roads.

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Ethical Evaluation of Info Transport Bucharest Privacy Terms

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Ethical Evaluation of Info Transport Bucharest Privacy Terms

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Data Collection Transparency

Positive: The app clearly states that it collects personal data such as email, location, device identifiers, and diagnostic info.

Concern: It mentions collecting location data even when the app isn’t open, which can be intrusive if users are not explicitly reminded or regularly asked for consent.

Ethical Principle: Informed consent requires users to be fully aware when and how their data is collected. Ongoing consent is best practice, not just at installation.

2. Scope of Data Collected

Concern: Collecting detailed location data and device info can be very sensitive, especially if it’s linked to identifiable individuals. The terms don’t specify how long data is stored or if it’s anonymized.

Ethical Principle: Minimization of data collection and retention limits risk and respects user privacy.

3. Data Usage and Sharing

Concern: The terms are vague about who exactly the data is shared with (e.g., third parties, government agencies, advertisers). Lack of clarity reduces user control and trust.

Ethical Principle: Transparency about data sharing partners is essential for accountability.

4. User Rights Under GDPR

Positive: The app acknowledges users’ rights under GDPR, including access, rectification, erasure, and objection.

Concern: The process to exercise these rights isn’t clearly described, and it’s unclear how user-friendly or effective these mechanisms are in practice.

Ethical Principle: Users should have easy, effective ways to exercise their rights without obstacles.

5. Data Security

Concern: The terms do not provide detail on how data is secured against breaches or unauthorized access.

Ethical Principle: Ethical data stewardship requires robust security measures and transparent communication about them.

6. Ongoing Consent and Notifications

Concern: The terms do not mention whether users are notified if the policy changes or if new data uses are introduced.

Ethical Principle: Users should be kept informed and be able to consent again when significant changes happen.

7. Surveillance and Misuse Risks

Concern: Continuous location tracking can enable surveillance, either by the app developer or third parties if data is shared or hacked.

Ethical Principle: Respecting user autonomy and preventing misuse or overreach is critical.

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Navigation Apps: not everything is as good as it seems.

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Navigation Apps: not everything is as good as it seems.

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https://hrg-inc.com/can-you-stop-the-effects-of-real-time-traffic-navigation-apps-on-local-roadways/

This article discusses the difficulties that can arise from using traffic navigation apps.

We know that navigation apps are very useful, especially when we have no idea how to get from one place to another or if we want to know the shortest route. This works well when traveling on the highway, but when we're in the city, the benefits of these apps can become their drawbacks.

Here are just a few of the unintended effects of using navigation apps:
1. Everyone ends up on the same route, and the road becomes more congested.
2. Alternative routes can turn a quiet neighborhood street into a busy road, posing risks to pedestrians and residents.
3. The app may suggest unsafe routes, putting drivers at risk.
4. The app may be outdated and send us on a recently closed road or one under repair, increasing our travel time. 5. Drivers' lack of awareness of the areas marked by new detour routes can increase the possibility of accidents.

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HRG - Engineering | Planning | Infrastructure Solutions

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Congestion and safety concerns on residential through-ways

Engineers collect traffic counts and make traffic volume projections when they design a roadway based on factors like population and land use (e.g. Is it a residential street or a commercial roadway lined with businesses that will attract people?) These traffic volume projections are used to make decisions about how many lanes a roadway needs, whether designated turn lanes or traffic signals are needed, and more. But navigation apps have rapidly increased the volume of traffic on many residential streets, and these streets were not designed for that level of traffic. As a result, they can't move people as effectively as larger arterials can.

While navigation apps don't create traffic (they merely move it from one place to another), some places are better equipped to accommodate high traffic volumes than others are. For example, left-turns can take a long time to execute because drivers must wait for an opening in both directions of traffic. If left-turns are commonly executed at an intersection, an engineer might design a designated turn lane for these drivers, so that traffic can still move freely for people going straight or making right-hand turns. But if turns were not common at the time the roadway was designed, it would not have a designated turn lane. A rush of drivers from a navigation app could cause severe delays on this roadway if they're seeking to turn left in order to complete their route. Not only does the roadway have more traffic than usual, but the traffic pattern is not efficiently completed at this location.

Increased traffic volumes and higher speeds from pass-through drivers can reduce safety for residences on affected streets as well as people driving or crossing them.

When traffic backs up on the highway, drivers turn to navigation apps for an alternate route.

Accidents and near-misses caused by out-of-town drivers unfamiliar with steep curves and blind spots on local roads

The traffic in Los Angeles is legendary, so it's no surprise that drivers would rely on navigation apps to escape the congestion of its multi-lane highways. Some shortcuts are better than others, however. To navigation apps, Baxter Street looks like any other residential street, but it is very steep and you can't even see oncoming traffic coming up the hill when you're at the top. People who drive in this area every day are prepared for this sight distance issue when they turn onto Baxter Street, and they drive with appropriate caution. But people from outside the area who find the shortcut on an app have no idea what they're about to encounter, and they often stop unexpectedly. Accidents have become increasingly common, according to an article in Spectrum magazine.

The problem is not unique to Los Angeles. Steep curves and blinds spots occur on every local roadway network. If a driver expects them and has driven through the area before, he or she can more safely navigate them, but these roads can be more dangerous when a driver doesn't know what they're about to encounter and can't adjust in time. Unfamiliar drivers may approach a curve too quickly or stop suddenly when confronted with a blind spot. They may drive slower than other drivers as they try to navigate the tricky conditions, and opposing traffic may misjudge maneuvers because another driver's actions don't meet their expectations. All of this can increase the likelihood of accidents.

Heavy trucks tearing up the pavement (or making tight turns) on streets not designed to accommodate them

Trucks are bigger and heavier than cars. They create much more wear and tear on pavement than cars do, and they require a larger turning radius at intersections. Engineers take the volume of truck traffic on a particular roadway into account when they design the road for this reason. Roadways that see frequent truck traffic will be designed with a stronger and thicker pavement, and intersections will be widened to provide proper clearance for the trucks to navigate without encroaching on opposing traffic lanes.

The federal government has issued a maximum gross weight for individual vehicles of 80,000 pounds when traveling on federal highways. Pennsylvania has the same maximum weight limit, but many municipalities will post their streets for lesser weights because they know the roadway can't handle the increased tonnage.

A study by the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) found that an 80,000 pound tractor trailer produces the same impact on pavement as 9,600 automobiles. This is exponentially larger than the weight differential between the two vehicles: The tractor trailer is only 20 times heavier than the average car (4,000 pounds), but its impact is almost 10,000 times greater!

As navigation apps route more and more trucks onto local roadways, those roadways will deteriorate faster. This means municipal officials will have to spend more money on pavement maintenance and replacement over time. They may be able to restrict truck traffic on local roads when certain conditions are met (such as deteriorating pavement or insufficient radii); however, this requires an engineering evaluation. This evaluation will cost money, and not every situation will warrant a truck restriction.

The biggest problem for borough officials is tight turns. Borough streets are typically older and narrower, and the intersections are not large enough to accommodate truck traffic. Truck drivers may cross over into opposing lanes as they try to execute the turn, risking impact with cars or forcing drivers in the other lane to back up in order to make room for the truck to get through. If they don't cross into the other lane, they may come up onto the curb, damaging property.

This video, posted by regoTV on YouTube, shows how challenging it can be for trucks to navigate neighborhood streets.

These are growing problems in many towns across America, and communities have tried a variety of approaches to address them. Some communities have tried asking the apps to remove certain streets from their routing options, and frustrated residents have filed false reports of congestion to trick the app into routing people away from their homes. These approaches don't work.

Realistically, communities are left with two choices:

Improve the routes they want people to use, so congestion decreases (and people stay on the roads they're supposed to take) OR

Degrade the side roads and shortcut routes, so they become less desirable to app users.

Improving the routes takes time and money. Potential solutions include optimizing traffic signals or widening roads with extra lanes and added capacity, but this can cost thousands of dollars, and local governments struggle to come up with the funds.

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Can you stop the effects of real-time traffic navigation apps on local roadways? - HRG - Engineering | Planning | Infrastructure Solutions

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Drivers are using apps to escape highway traffic, but the local roads they take as alternate routes are not designed to carry them. See what towns are doing

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Why shouldn't the city/municipality/local governing authority own traffic data?

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Why shouldn't the city/municipality/local governing authority own traffic data?

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This article goes over the gradual evolution of traffic-routing apps and what has/has not changed since their inception. It's well worth a read.

That said, there are a couple of things that stand out to me. First and foremost - who owns my driving data? While I get a say in allowing my app to have access to that data, could I give priority to the city have access to this data over an app, and require the app owner to purchase the data from the city? It seems to me the organization that has the remit to aggregate all information (independent of who owns the apps) is the one who should control its distribution.

As the article notes, because all of these profit-making enterprises are competing for my business, they operate with incomplete (and sometimes dangerously incomplete) information. When do I, as the user, get to say: "I'm fine with you using this data because it helps me get places faster, but you have to buy it from the city?"

Seems to me this would be revenue-generating for my municipality and would result in more efficient directions.

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This article originally appeared at IEEE Spectrum
By Jane Macfarlane
Illustration: Chris Philpot
Miguel Street is a winding, narrow route through the Glen Park neighborhood of San Francisco. Until a few years ago, only those living along the road traveled it, and they understood its challenges well. Now it's packed with cars that use it as a shortcut from congested Mission Street to heavily traveled Market Street. Residents must struggle to get to their homes, and accidents are a daily occurrence.

The problem began when smartphone apps like Waze, Apple Maps, and Google Maps came into widespread use, offering drivers real-time routing around traffic tie-ups. An estimated 1 billion drivers worldwide use such apps.

Today, traffic jams are popping up unexpectedly in previously quiet neighborhoods around the country and the world. Along Adams Street, in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester, residents complain of speeding vehicles at rush hour, many with drivers who stare down at their phones to determine their next maneuver. London shortcuts, once a secret of black-cab drivers, are now overrun with app users. Israel was one of the first to feel the pain because Waze was founded there; it quickly caused such havoc that a resident of the Herzliya Bet neighborhood sued the company.

The problem is getting worse. City planners around the world have predicted traffic on the basis of residential density, anticipating that a certain amount of real-time changes will be necessary in particular circumstances. To handle those changes, they have installed tools like stoplights and metering lights, embedded loop sensors, variable message signs, radio transmissions, and dial-in messaging systems. For particularly tricky situations-an obstruction, event, or emergency-city managers sometimes dispatch a human being to direct traffic.

But now online navigation apps are in charge, and they're causing more problems than they solve. The apps are typically optimized to keep an individual driver's travel time as short as possible; they don't care whether the residential streets can absorb the traffic or whether motorists who show up in unexpected places may compromise safety. Figuring out just what these apps are doing and how to make them better coordinate with more traditional traffic-management systems is a big part of my research at the University of California, Berkeley, where I am director of the Smart Cities Research Center.

Here's how the apps evolved. Typically, the base road maps used by the apps represent roads as five functional classes, from multilane freeways down to small residential streets. Each class is designed to accommodate a different number of vehicles moving through per hour at speeds that are adjusted for local conditions. The navigation systems-originally available as dedicated gadgets or built into car dashboards and now in most smartphones-have long used this information in their routing algorithms to calculate likely travel time and to select the best route.

Initially, the navigation apps used these maps to search through all the possible routes to a destination. Although that worked well when users were sitting in their driveways, getting ready to set out on a trip, those searches were too computationally intensive to be useful for drivers already on the road. So software developers created algorithms that identify just a few routes, estimate the travel times of each, and select the best one. This approach might miss the fastest route, but it generally worked pretty well. Users could tune these algorithms to prefer certain types of roads over others-for example, to prefer highways or to avoid them.

The digital mapping industry is a small one. Navteq (now Here Technologies) and TomTom, two of the earliest digital-map makers, got started about 30 years ago. They focused mainly on building the data sets, typically releasing updated maps quarterly. In between these releases, the maps and the routes suggested by the navigation apps didn't change.

When navigation capabilities moved to apps on smartphones, the navigation system providers began collecting travel speeds and locations from all the users who were willing to let the app share their information. Originally, the system providers used these GPS traces as historical data in algorithms designed to estimate realistic speeds on the roads at different times of day. They integrated these estimates with the maps, identifying red, yellow, and green routes-where red meant likely congestion and green meant unrestricted flow.

As the historical records of these GPS traces grew and the coverage and bandwidth of the cellular networks improved, developers started providing traffic information to users in nearly real time. Estimates were quite accurate for the more popular apps, which had the most drivers in a particular region.

And then, around 2013, Here Technologies, TomTom, Waze, and Google went beyond just flagging traffic jams ahead. They began offering real-time rerouting suggestions, considering current traffic on top of the characteristics of the road network. That gave their users opportunities to get around traffic slowdowns, and that's how the chaos began.

What The Traffic Apps Don't Know
Illustration: Chris Philpot
A sporting event at a nearby stadium [A] causes a traffic backup on the highway that bypasses the center of this imaginary urban area. That's a problem for our hypothetical driver trying to get home from work, so she turns to a navigation app for help. The shortest-and, according to the app, the fastest-alternate route [blue line] winds through a residential neighborhood with blind turns, a steep hill [B], and a drawbridge [C], which can create unexpected delays for those unfamiliar with its scheduled openings. The red route cuts through the city center [D] and in front of an elementary school [E]; the app doesn't know school just let out for the day. Fortunately, our driver knows the area, so she selects the purple route, even though the app indicates that it isn't the fastest option. Drivers unfamiliar with the area and looking for a shortcut to the stadium could find themselves in chaotic-even hazardous-situations.

On its face, real-time rerouting isn't a problem. Cities do it all the time by changing the signal, phase, and timing of traffic lights or flashing detour alerts on signs. The real problem is that the traffic management apps are not working with existing urban infrastructures to move the most traffic in the most efficient way.

First, the apps don't account for the peculiarities of a given neighborhood. Remember the five classes of roads along with their estimated free-flow speeds I mentioned? That's virtually all the apps know about the roads themselves. For example, Baxter Street in Los Angeles-also a scene of increased accidents due to app-induced shortcutting-is an extremely steep road that follows what originally was a network of goat paths. But to the apps, this road looks like any other residential road with a low speed limit. They assume it has parking on both sides and room for two-way traffic in between. It doesn't take into account that it has a 32 percent grade and that when you're at the top you can't see the road ahead or oncoming cars. This blind spot has caused drivers to stop unexpectedly, causing accidents on this once-quiet neighborhood street.

The algorithms also may not consider other characteristics of the path they choose. For example, does it include roads on which there are a lot of pedestrians? Does it pass by an elementary school? Does it include intersections that are difficult to cross, such as a small street crossing a major thoroughfare with no signal light assistance?

I recently experienced what such cluelessness can cause. I was in congested traffic on a multilane road when an app offered to get me out of the traffic by sending me into a residential neighborhood. It routed me right past an elementary school at 8:15 a.m. There were crossing guards, minivans double parked, kids jumping out of cars, and drivers facing the bright morning sun having a hard time seeing in the glare. I only added to the chaos.

On top of all these problems, these rerouting apps are all out for themselves. They take a selfish view in which each vehicle is competing for the fastest route to its destination. This can lead to the router creating new traffic congestion in unexpected places.

Consider cars crossing a thoroughfare without the benefit of a signal light. Perhaps the car on the smaller road has a stop sign. Likely, it was designed as a two-way stop because traffic on the larger road was typically light enough that the wait to cross was comfortably short. Add cars to that larger road, however, and breaks in the traffic become few, causing the line of cars waiting at the stop sign to flow onto neighboring streets. If you're in the car on the larger road, you may be zipping along to your destination. But if you're on the smaller road, you may have to wait a very long time to cross. And if the apps direct more and more cars to these neighborhood roads, as may happen when a nearby highway is experiencing abnormal delays, the backups build and the likelihood of accidents increases.

To compound the "selfish routing" problem, each navigation application provider-Google, Apple, Waze (now owned by Google)-operates independently. Each provider receives data streamed to its servers only from the devices of its users, which means that the penetration of its app colors the system's understanding of reality. If the app's penetration is low, the system may fall back on historical traffic speeds for the area instead of getting a good representation of existing congestion. So we have multiple players working independently with imperfect information and expecting that the entire road network is available to absorb their users in real time.

Meanwhile, city transportation engineers are busy managing traffic with the tools they have at their disposal, like those on-ramp metering lights, messaging signs, and radio broadcasts suggesting real-time routing adjustments that I mentioned previously. Their goal is to control the congestion, maintain a safe and effective travel network, and react appropriately to such things as accidents, sporting events, and, in emergency situations, evacuations.

The city engineers are also working in isolation, with incomplete information, because they have no idea what the apps are going to do at any moment. The city now loses its understanding of the amount of traffic demanding access to its roads. That's a safety issue in the short term and a planning issue in the long term: It blinds the city to information it could use to develop better traffic-mitigation strategies-for example, urging businesses to consider different work shifts or fleet operators to consider different routes.

So you may have recently benefitted from one of these shortcuts, but it's doubtful that you're winning the long game. To do that takes thinking about the system as a whole and perhaps even considering aggregate fuel consumption and emissions. Only then can we use these rerouting algorithms for the benefit of all citizens and our environment.

In the meantime, neighborhoods and citizens are fighting back against the strangers using their streets as throughways. In the early days of the problem, around 2014, residents would try to fool the applications into believing there were accidents tying up traffic in their neighborhood by logging fake incidents into the app. Then some neighborhoods convinced their towns to install speed bumps, slowing down the traffic and giving a route a longer base travel time.
Photo: Richard Vogel/AP
Goats Only? The steep and narrow Baxter Street in Los Angeles, originally a network of goat paths, looked like any other residential road to the traffic apps, which rerouted drivers along it and caused chaos.

A town in New Jersey, Leonia, simply closed many of its streets to through traffic during commute hours, levying heavy fines for nonresident drivers. Neighboring towns followed suit. And all faced the unintended consequence of their local businesses now losing customers who couldn't get through the town at those hours.

The city of Los Angeles recently responded to the issues on Baxter Street by recasting the street as one-way: downhill only. It's still not ideal; it means longer trips for residents coming and going from their homes, but it reduced the chaos.

Last year, an unfortunate situation in Los Angeles during the 2017 wildfires clearly demonstrated the lack of congruence among the rerouting apps and traditional traffic management: The apps directed drivers onto streets that were being closed by the city, right into the heart of the fire. This is not the fault of the algorithms; it is simply extremely difficult to maintain an up-to-date understanding of the roads during fast-moving events. But it does illustrate why city officials need a way to connect with or even override these apps. Luckily, the city had a police officer in the area, who was able to physically turn traffic away onto a safer route.

These are mere stopgap measures; they serve to reduce, not improve, overall mobility. What we really want is a socially optimum state in which the average travel time is minimized everywhere. Traffic engineers call this state system optimum equilibrium, one of the two Wardrop principles of equilibrium. How do we merge the app-following crowds with an engineered flow of traffic that at least moves toward a socially optimized system, using the control mechanisms we have on hand? We can begin by pooling everyone's view of the real-time state of the road network. But getting everybody in the data pool won't be easy. It is a David and Goliath story-some players like Google and Apple have massive back-office digital infrastructures to run these operations, while many cities have minimal funding for advanced technology development. Without the ability to invest in new technology, cities can't catch up with these big technology providers and instead fall back on regulation. For example, Portland, Ore., Seattle, and many other cities have lowered the speed limits on residential streets to 20 miles per hour.

There are better ways. We must convince the app makers that if they share information with one another and with city governments, the rerouting algorithms could consider a far bigger picture, including information from the physical infrastructure, such as the timing schedule for traffic lights and meters and vehicle counts from static sensors, including cameras and inductive loops. This data sharing would make their apps better while simultaneously giving city traffic planners a helping hand.

As a first step, we should form public-private partnerships among the navigation app providers, city traffic engineering organizations, and even transportation companies like Uber and Lyft. Sharing all this information would help us figure out how to best reduce congestion and manage our mobility.

We have a number of other hurdles to overcome before all the apps and infrastructure tools can work together well enough to optimize traffic flow for everyone.

The real challenge with traffic control is the enormous scale of the problem. Using the flood of data from app users along with the data from city sensors will require a new layer of data analytics that takes the key information and combines it, anonymizes it, and puts it in a form that can be more easily digested by government-operated traffic management systems.

We also need to develop simulation software that can use all this data to model the dynamics of our mobility on an urban scale. Developing this software is a key topic of current research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Efficient Mobility Systems program and involving Here Technologies and three national laboratories: Lawrence Berkeley, Argonne, and Pacific Northwest. I am involved with this research program through the Berkeley lab, where I am a guest scientist in the Sustainable Transportation Initiative. To date, a team supported by this program, led by me and staffed by researchers from the three laboratories, has developed simulations for a number of large cities that can run in just minutes on DOE supercomputers. In the past, such simulations took days or weeks. I expect that new approaches to manage congestion that account for the many complexities of the problem will emerge from these simulations.

In one of our projects, we took 22 million origin-and-destination pairs-or trip legs, as defined by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority-and created a simulation for the San Francisco Bay Area that defines the shortest travel time route for each leg as well as the congestion patterns on each route for a full day. We added an algorithm that reroutes vehicles when the simulation anticipates significant congestion. We discovered that approximately 40,000 vehicles are typically rerouted per hour at the peak congestion times in the morning and 120,000 vehicles are rerouted per hour in the evening congestion period; an incident on a highway, of course, would cause these numbers to jump.

This simulation demonstrates how much traffic planners can do to rebalance traffic flow, and it provides numbers that, right now, are not directly available. The next question is how much of the road network you want to use, trading off highway congestion for some additional traffic on neighborhood roads.

Our next step will be to modify our algorithm to consider neighborhood constraints. We know, for example, that we don't want to reroute traffic into school zones during drop-off and pickup times, and that we should modify navigation algorithms appropriately.

We hope to soon put these tools in the hands of government transportation agencies.

That's what we're trying to do with technology to address the problem. But there are nontechnical hurdles as well. For example, location data can contain personal information that cannot be shared indiscriminately. And current business models may make for-profit companies reluctant to give away data that has value.

Solving both the technical and nontechnical issues will require research and public-private partnerships before we can assemble this cooperative ecosystem. But as we learn more about what drives the dynamics of our roads, we will be able to develop effective routing and traffic controls that take into account neighborhood concerns, the business objectives of fleet owners, and people's health and convenience.

I am confident that most people, when well informed, would be open to a little inconvenience in the furtherance of the common good. Wouldn't you be willing to drive a few extra minutes to spare a neighborhood and improve the environment?
A correction to this article was made on 20 September 2019. This article appears in the October 2019 print issue as "When Apps Rule the Road."
About the Author

Jane Macfarlane is director of the Smart Cities Research Center at the University of California Berkeley's Institute of Transportation Studies, where she works on data analytics for emerging transportation issues.

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Your Navigation App Is Making Traffic Unmanageable

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This article originally appeared at IEEE Spectrum By Jane Macfarlane Illustration: Chris Philpot Miguel Street is a winding, narrow route through the Glen Park neighborhood of San Francisco. Until a few years ago, only those living along the road traveled it, and they understood its challenges well.

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Tech like Waze has been a lifesaver for me and many of my peers -- who have to reckon with the torturous traffic in a third-world metropolis. As well as helping us be on time for endeavors, it has acquainted many with parts of the city that they didn't even know existed.

But apart from the issues already identified by my co-learners here, Waze and systems that are cut from the same cloth may be inducing a dependency of sorts. What I've encountered during my search is not a news article, but this study: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0276449

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In WAZE we trust? GPS-based navigation application users’ behavior and patterns of dependency

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Functional technological applications have become an integral part of our lives changing our patterns of reasoning and behavior. The current study examines whether, how and why use of WAZE app, a popular GPS-based navigation application, demonstrate behaviors and patterns which resemble those of technological dependency. We conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with 50 WAZE users. The questions took inspiration from the model of IT addiction, which identifies six behavioral parameters: withdrawal, conflict, mood modification, relapse, tolerance, and saliency. The novelty of the study lies in the evidence of patterns and behaviors which resemble technological dependency on the WAZE app. The findings indicate that WAZE app satisfies users’ needs driven by functionality. Four behavioral characteristics associated with IT addiction are applicable to WAZE users: mood modification, conflict, relapse, and withdrawal. The study concludes that functional technological applications may trigger behavioral indicators of technological addiction.

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Smart cities are very interested in data sources that could empower them to have more data driven decision making (and preparation) processes. However many companies are interested in providing only data as a service. They gather the data and attempt to keep the benefits by only selling the reports. Through doing this cities need to keep on buying and have very little potential to cross the data or use it in innovative ways.

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Real-time traffic apps like Google Maps and Waze have become essential tools for drivers and city planners alike. They offer up-to-date information that helps reduce congestion and improve travel times, while also providing valuable data for urban traffic management. However, their widespread use has also brought unintended consequences for local communities, especially when traffic is diverted through residential areas not designed for heavy use.For example, in Richmond, London, real-time traffic apps have pushed more cars through quiet neighborhoods, causing noise, pollution, and safety worries. Residents have complained and asked for traffic calming. The big challenge is balancing the benefits of these apps with protecting local streets from extra traffic.

A few additional issues to consider include:

Data privacy concerns: These apps collect and share large amounts of location data, raising questions about how user information is stored, used, and protected.

Overreliance on technology: Drivers may become too dependent on apps, potentially reducing their own awareness of local conditions or alternative routes.

Impact on public transport: Easier car travel might discourage people from using public transit, which can increase overall traffic and pollution.

Unequal access: Not everyone has a smartphone or reliable internet, so benefits may not reach all communities equally.

How can cities harness the power of smart traffic apps to improve travel without turning quiet neighborhoods into unwanted traffic hotspots?

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To me Imostly see cons:

reduced petrol usage ( with that its better for the environment)

time savings

less stress

but I also see some cons:

mostly the accuracy (for example people are changing their route and the system doesn't catch up and there's traffic on the "better" road)

also privacy concerns( does it collect the data ofindividual drivers?, how long is the data stored)

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Pros:

Fast movement

Avoid traffic congestion in main streets/ highways

Reduce time of travelling

Cons

Invasion of residential zones

Increase of pollution

Risk of passing through dangerous regions

Bias of patterns in vehicular movement

More risk for the safety for children and pedestrians in suburban regions

Then, remember that the rules, laws and adaptations are governed by habits, so if the traffic flow is increased in these suburban regions, its use would be adapted in the future to a more transitable region.

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One issue with real-time traffic routing apps like Google Maps or Waze is that they often reroute drivers through small residential streets to avoid congestion on main roads. While this helps individual drivers save time, it creates new problems for suburban communities: increased noise, pollution, and safety risks for pedestrians. Some cities have even had to block certain shortcuts or ask platforms to stop redirecting traffic through quiet neighborhoods. So while the data helps individual drivers, it can harm the quality of life for local residents.

https://www.ctinsider.com/connecticut/article/ct-gps-waze-apple-google-maps-residential-roads-20031670.php

https://epasun.org/how-reporting-a-google-maps-error-reduced-cut-through-traffic-in-east-palo-alto/

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Re-routing while driving can encourage drivers to interact unsafely with their device while driving, such as pressing a button to confirm or reject the new route. Re-routing may save the driver a few minutes on their journey, but unless there is a serious traffic jam with an appropriate alternate route, the difference is often minimal.

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A prominent example is Google Maps, including the ‘Waze’ service that effectively monitors use of roads and all sorts of services, and provides real time feedback to their customers.

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One benefit of traffic routing, like Google Maps and Waze, is that it helps individuals save time by avoiding traffic jams, leading to smoother and faster commutes. For drivers, this can mean less stress, fuel savings, and fewer emissions as they take routes with lighter traffic. However, for suburban communities, the downside can be that these apps may redirect a large number of cars through residential areas, creating congestion, noise, and air pollution where there were none before. This shift in traffic patterns can impact local communities' quality of life.

Another issue is the sale of traffic data to city authorities. While this data can help improve urban planning, such as optimizing traffic lights or identifying areas needing better infrastructure, it raises privacy concerns. In Lebanon, for example, with the current economic and political climate, the use of this data could potentially be exploited or misused without proper regulations, potentially invading individuals’ privacy and targeting certain communities unfairly.

For me, one thing I hadn’t fully considered before is how these apps, though useful, can also unintentionally exacerbate inequality. Areas that are already underserved by infrastructure could end up being more congested, while wealthier areas with more resources see improvements, widening the gap in city planning.

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There are a plethora of benefits for different stakeholders; for drivers, this will reduce travel time and fuel costs by avoiding congestion; there might be improved journey reliability and dynamic rerouting; all these are options drivers will gladly embrace. For non-drivers like pedestrians, they might benefit from lesser emissions and noise in some areas when traffic is diverted. Also, apps can provide improved route planning for alternative modes like bike lanes and walking paths. Suburban communities might benefit from less congestion at main junctions, and there might be potential for improved emergency response times via optimised routes. Downsides for drivers will vary, but they might have to contend with constant rerouting, which may lead to stress or overreliance on GPS over personal judgement. Also, they may be sent to unfamiliar areas or unsafe areas. For non-drivers and communities, the rerouted traffic can flood quiet residential streets, increasing noise pollution and safety risks. Equity issues might surface if poorer neighbourhoods are burdened with extra traffic.

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These mobile applications help a lot in avoiding congestion on roads and find shortcuts and a very good example for this is Waze app.

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Issue Identified: Impact of Real-Time Traffic Routing on Residential Streets

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Issue Identified: Impact of Real-Time Traffic Routing on Residential Streets

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One of the more surprising problems with real-time traffic routing services like Google Maps and Waze is the way they reroute traffic through quiet residential areas to avoid congestion. While this benefits individual drivers by saving time, it often causes a surge in traffic through suburban streets that were not designed to handle high volumes—leading to noise pollution, safety concerns for pedestrians, and a general decline in the quality of life for residents.

This is a classic case of a system optimizing for individual convenience at the expense of community wellbeing. Some cities, like Los Angeles and Barcelona, have begun to push back by implementing traffic restrictions or redesigning roads to discourage through-traffic routed by apps.

The ethical dilemma here isn’t just about privacy or data usage—it’s about who gets to define “efficient” travel and whether algorithmic convenience should outweigh social and environmental impact.

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It's quite easy to use these routing apps to report things while driving - for example accidents, congestion, and speed cameras. Firstly, should people be encouraged to interact with their device in any way while driving? Secondly, does the reporting of speed cameras mean that people are just going to slow down for when they know the camera is coming and ignore the speed limit elsewhere?

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Using apps to report hazards while driving can be helpful, but any interaction with a device—even brief—risks distraction. The safest approach is hands-free use only, ensuring focus stays on the road.

Regarding speed cameras, alerting drivers can lead to “spot compliance”—slowing only near cameras, then speeding elsewhere—undermining consistent safe driving. Ideally, these alerts should foster ongoing awareness and better habits, not just reactive braking.

In short: technology must balance convenience with safety and encourage real behavior change, not just temporary compliance.

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The negative aspects of traffic routing tech are: rat-running, where minor roads become busy due to drivers using satnav apps to 'avoid traffic', making small residential roads busier and less safe-feeling for vulnerable groups, for example parents walking young children to school; they also increase the air pollution on these roads, sending exhaust fumes directly into young children's lungs.

I can see the benefits of having less panicked drivers who are rerouting in advance rather than switching lines or U-turning mid-traffic-jam. I can also see the huge value of this data to city planners who are planning road changes or traffic light installation. However, self-observation is going to add a layer of insight that data can't, so I would be keen to see city planners not only using technology but also applying their own considerable professional experience, and foresight. I also wonder if real-time traffic data will lead planners to prioritise cars and focus on the needs of cars, when public transport and active transport should always be the priority - and there may be less data gathered on the latter (for example, how much data is gathered on pedestrians having to reroute?).

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Real-time traffic routing enhances driving efficiency by providing up-to-date information, allowing drivers to avoid congestion and reduce travel time. However, it can inadvertently divert traffic onto previously quiet residential streets, leading to increased noise and safety concerns in those areas

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City authorities can use traffic data to improve infrastructure and plan public transit, and in theory this should allow for more optimal decisions to be made in order to make the lives of citizens in transit safer and quicker.

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Companies like Google and Apple control vast amounts of traffic data, potentially creating monopolistic advantages over city planners.

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One issue I found interesting is how real-time routing can shift traffic from main roads to residential streets. This can create problems for people living on those streets, even if it benefits drivers overall. How can communities balance the benefits of real-time routing with the potential negative impacts on residential areas?

Maybe cities could use the data to implement traffic calming measures on those streets or work with the app developers to suggest routes that avoid residential areas.

However, I think it's also important to consider the benefits of reduced congestion on main roads. It's a balancing act. Maybe the solution is better infrastructure planning, so residential streets can handle some extra traffic without becoming overwhelmed.

Another thing to consider is the equity aspect. Lower-income communities might be disproportionately affected by increased cut-through traffic if they're located near major roads, and residents may have less political power to get the city to address the issue.

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Real-time traffic routing apps like Google Maps and Waze help reduce travel time by providing alternative routes, allowing drivers to avoid congestion. However, a major drawback is the privacy concerns, as these apps collect and process vast amounts of personal data.

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One of the key benefits of using real-time traffic routing apps like Waze is their built-in GPS, which tracks your exact location while driving. The Waze community continuously updates traffic conditions, including congestion, road construction, weather hazards, and police presence, all in real time. As a result, drivers can reduce travel time, optimize their routes, and improve fuel efficiency. Additionally, Waze allows users to estimate their arrival time before even getting into the car, helping with better time management.

However, to use Waze, GPS location tracking must be enabled on your smartphone. This means your location data is collected by Waze, a company owned by Google, raising some privacy concerns. On the other hand, cities can purchase this data for urban planning purposes. I believe this is beneficial because it allows cities to adjust infrastructure and traffic management based on real-time data, ultimately improving urban mobility.

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Real-time traffic routing offers numerous benefits, including reduced travel times for drivers and decreased congestion in suburban areas. For highway controllers, it enables efficient traffic management, allowing for quick responses to incidents and smoother traffic flow. Non-drivers also benefit from improved air quality and reduced noise pollution. Furthermore, when city authorities buy real-time traffic data, it aids in informed urban planning and infrastructure development, potentially leading to more efficient cities.

However, there are challenges associated with this technology. Privacy concerns arise as personal travel patterns are tracked, and reliance on real-time data can cause confusion or stress for drivers unfamiliar with new routes. In suburban communities, improved routing may inadvertently increase traffic and environmental impacts. Additionally, city authorities purchasing data might face issues with the accuracy of third-party data, potentially leading to misguided planning decisions. Balancing these benefits and challenges is key to ensuring that real-time traffic routing contributes positively to urban life.

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When searching to go to a place, the application shows the map and route that it considers most viable, however, it ignores or leaves out details of the geography and cultural context. For example, in my country, the geography of the country includes three mountain ranges, each with its particularities due to climatic changes, situation of the roads and others, which on the map can be seen as easily accessible routes.

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Pros and cons of realtime traffic routing

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Pros and cons of realtime traffic routing

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Pros: Less time for drivers, and greater emergency response times,

Cons: Privacy issues and secondary routes may not be suitable for heavy traffic loads.

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1. Benefits

For City Authorities:

Data-Driven Planning: Real-time traffic data provides valuable insights for urban planning and infrastructure development

Sustainability Goals: Efficient traffic management can help cities meet their sustainability targets by reducing emissions and improving air quality

2. Challenges:

Data Privacy Concerns: Collecting and using real-time traffic data raises privacy issues, as it involves tracking the movement of individuals

High Implementation Costs: Setting up and maintaining real-time traffic management systems can be expensive

Integration with Legacy Systems: Integrating new technologies with existing infrastructure can be challenging.

Example Issue:

One significant issue is data privacy. Real-time traffic management systems collect vast amounts of data, including location information from drivers. This raises concerns about how the data is stored, used, and protected. Ensuring that privacy policies are transparent and that data is anonymized can help address these concerns

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Re-routing can result in subsequent traffic congestion

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Re-routing can result in subsequent traffic congestion

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A benefit of real-time traffic routing is that it helps drivers avoid congested areas and accidents, potentially saving them significant time on their commutes and reducing stress.

However, one problem is that when many drivers are re-routed through the same residential side streets to avoid main road congestion, it can increase traffic, noise, and safety concerns in normally quiet neighborhoods where residents, children, and pedestrians aren't accustomed to heavy traffic flow

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If the use of a kettle could be used to determine when you are home or not, could location and mapping apps be used to determine drunk drivers, and whether the police should stop a driver? Like, if a person spends a bit of time around a place where drinking may have occurred and is noticed to be driving, a notice could go out to the police who would then stop the person. A gross invasion of privacy but lives could be saved.

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Real-time traffic routing offers several benefits, such as reducing travel time and vehicle emissions by guiding drivers away from congested areas. However, it can also lead to unintended consequences, like increased traffic in suburban neighborhoods as drivers seek alternative routes. This shift can disrupt local communities, causing noise and air pollution in previously quiet areas. Additionally, highway controllers may face challenges in managing traffic flow effectively, as sudden changes in routes can lead to bottlenecks elsewhere. When city authorities purchase traffic data for planning, they might rely on information that doesn't fully capture these local disruptions, potentially leading to misguided infrastructure decisions.

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The use of real-time traffic routing can assist in the reduction of accidents and traffic bottlenecks. By reducing emissions, it can also contribute to the improvement of air quality. But if connection fails from different reasons, it can create more issues

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One benefit of apps like 'Waze', for example, is that they can track your speed and so could (in theory) report dangerous driving. With dangerous driving being such an issue and causing so many injuries and fatalities every day, this could be an extremely beneficial aspect of real time traffic routing. 'Waze' does not currently do this, however, but it does report data on road issues in need of repair. While this data is useful for local councils and is an easy way of accessing this information, I believe that Waze and apps similar to it should also share data which relates to dangerous drivers as this would be a deterrent to those drivers and possibly save lives as a result.

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One significant benefit of real-time traffic routing is improved travel efficiency. For individual drivers, it means reduced travel times and lower fuel consumption, as they can avoid congested routes and find quicker alternatives. Non-drivers, like pedestrians and cyclists, also benefit as traffic rerouting can alleviate congestion in urban areas, making streets safer and more pleasant to navigate. For suburban communities, this technology can lead to less traffic on local roads and better air quality, while highway controllers can use real-time data to manage traffic flow more effectively and respond to incidents quickly.

However, one major issue is the potential for data privacy concerns. When city authorities buy traffic data for planning, there’s a risk of personal information being exposed or misused. Individuals may not be aware that their movements are being tracked, leading to apprehension about surveillance and data security. This can undermine public trust in both technology and authorities, making it crucial for communities to establish clear guidelines on data use and privacy protection.

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There are a lot of pros with the monitoring of traffic and public transport. It can show you how busy buses are as well as how to avoid high traffic areas, however google does tend to rely on individuals to feedback in a lot of cases and this is not always accurate with people not taking the time to respond or potentially responding with whatever gets rid of the pop up the quickest

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One of the biggest weaknesses in real-time traffic routing is its reliance on the internet for information. During an internet outage (say, following a major natural disaster or a cyberattack), real-time information is limited and drivers may be left wondering why their apps aren't working - reducing trust in the app.

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Typical example of real-time traffic navigation services in China

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Typical example of real-time traffic navigation services in China

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In China, a typical example of real-time traffic navigation services is Gaode Map. It not only provides drivers with real-time traffic information and optimal routes but also supports non-driving users with walking navigation and public transportation queries.

One evident benefit is that Gaode Map effectively reduces urban traffic congestion. By monitoring road conditions in real time, drivers can avoid congested areas, thereby saving commuting time. However, this has led to the phenomenon known as "induced demand." For instance, when certain routes are recommended to a large number of drivers, originally smooth roads may become congested, adversely affecting the traffic flow and quality of life in surrounding communities.

Moreover, urban planners utilize data from Gaode Map for traffic planning; however, an over-reliance on this data may overlook long-term impacts and exacerbate existing traffic issues. Therefore, finding a balance between short-term convenience and long-term urban development emerges as an important issue that warrants attention.

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Concerns:

1. Data could be created, that e.g. could be used out of context, like for speeding prosecution, accident investigations, etc., which would not be the genuine purpose of their collection. If this would happen at large scale there might be a genersl user acceptance problem.

Here, strong legislation would be required, which warrants no out of context usage of such data to the user.

2. As I ecperience daily with my in car GPS system, though it is receiving already live traffic information, proposed routing is many times an issue. It is always the question whether to follow a proposed routing or not and many times I decide to not follow based on prior negative experiences. In this light the technical hurdles for such a project will be high, ie. in order to get user acceptance the recommrndations of such a system need to be x times better than existing systems.

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Pros of Using the App:

Real-time Traffic Updates: Users share live information about traffic conditions, accidents, and road closures.

Alternative Route Suggestions: The app can suggest faster routes based on crowdsourced data.

Speeding Alerts and Police Locations: Helps drivers avoid speeding tickets and stay aware of police presence.

Cons of Using the App:

Data Collection Concerns: The app might collect more data than just your location, including driving behaviour like sudden acceleration or braking, which could be used to profile you as a risky driver.

Potential for Police Access: Your speed and location data could be shared with the police, leading to potential fines or investigations.

Insurance Premium Increases: Insurance companies could use the app's data on your driving habits to increase your premiums. - this is a major concern for me

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I tentatively agree with city planners being able to access traffic data for the purposes of making travel in cities more efficient, particularly if this feeds into decisions around:

improving public transport routes

creating safer cycleways and pedestrian routes

reducing traffic around schools

creating low emission zones

creating safer residential areas

Provided this data is anonymised, and is at the city level, there is a minimal risk of privacy being invaded.

This is data that would be available from observation (as it happens outside, in a public place) but this isn't a scalable way to collect data.

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One fundamental benefit is the optimization of traffic management, aiming to reduce congestion and allocate resources and infrastructure more efficiently. While the goal of decreasing travel times and easing congestion is highly appealing, it is not always fully realized in practice.

Another advantage of real-time monitoring is its ability to detect traffic violations such as illegal turns, improper stops, or wrong-way driving, allowing law enforcement to respond promptly and more effectively. Additionally, advanced vehicle recognition technologies can differentiate between emergency and non-emergency vehicles, enabling prioritized routing and facilitating faster emergency responses.

However, there are issues to be considered, particularly regarding privacy and over-reliance on technology. Continuous video surveillance and license plate tracking can raise significant privacy issues among citizens. Moreover, excessive dependence on automated systems might reduce essential human oversight and decision-making in traffic management, making it difficult to respond effectively when technical problems or system failures occur.

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While real time traffic updates are essential and useful, I have found many people in busy areas relying what it tells on the screen rather than what is actually in front of them.

While it is safe to navigate before you move, I find the idea of driving with a map within the busy city quite unsafe. Apply CarPlay and Android Auto are optimized to a certain extent but still they are apps born out of necessity taking many queues from their mobile app counterparts.

I have also found that the decision making on the road while using smart systems (apps or any other) isn't very convenient. It takes a toll on the safety of everyone.

I personally do look at the map before I begin driving, never while on the road.

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Benefits for individuals: can help drivers avoid congested areas, enhance safety, reduce travel time and fuel consumption.

Benefits for suburban: can help distribute traffic more evenly across routes, reduce congestion in suburban areas and improve air quality.

Benefits for highway controllers: can help in managing and directing traffic flow efficiently and response to incidents

Benefits for city authorities: can help to identify how to plan / where to invest street infrastructure

Problems for all: privacy concerns, data overload/complexity

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Overreliance on Technology Impacting on Safety

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Overreliance on Technology Impacting on Safety

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Over reliance on technology is something that concerns me in every walk of life. Tools like Google Maps are beneficial in so many ways and at the individual through to the communities and authorities i.e., time saving, fuel efficiency, optimising traffic control, urban planning etc. However, what to do when it goes wrong? My nephew is at an age where he is learning to drive so I ran a little experiment. When out practicing I took him to a new location he was unfamiliar with, told him to image it was dark and a bit scary, his phone battery had run out, he had no charger, there was no sat nav in the car (many of us now thinking, yep been there :) and that he now needed to get home. The expressions on his face was priceless. Realization as to just how wrong it can all go. He has since learned to map read and has a map in the car.

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I think buying the data for planning when it's only for city efficiency purposes it's a good thing to do that doesn't have many cons. It is collected by private companies (such as Google) and if you have given Google permission to use our data, it shouldn't be a problem letting the government have it. But I do believe it becomes a problem when it's other firms wanting to access it to put it against you, for intance by charging more insurance to you or by raising prices of gas more and more.

I use these kinds of apps all the time and they really do save me time, so if they can work best if used by the government, then let it be it.

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More investment in zones with resources to monitor traffic in real time, causing inequality in maintenance in rural or zones in poverty. 

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More investment in zones with resources to monitor traffic in real time, causing inequality in maintenance in rural or zones in poverty. 

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Real-time traffic monitoring is an interesting concept and one that has many pros and cons. I will detail and pro and con.

Pro:

Allow drivers to see where congestion is anticipated and allow them to seek alternative routes for better travel planning.

Con:

There is a potential privacy to drivers, especially those who opt in to share there information. The technology could track you and the information you + your car is reporting out and sell it to auto insurers who could hike your insurance premium because you travel on higher congested roads.

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Pros:

Better traffic management especially when there are accidents and other events that affect main routes.

Better time management for time-critical industries that rely heavily on road logistics.

Cons:

Consent to have our location data to be used in such system. We do not know if our data are used just for traffic information or anything else as well.

Alternative routes and shortcuts suggested could lead to overuse of those routes, resulting in locals facing those smaller routes suddenly having to deal with increased traffic.

Area with less data (less populated, less people with smartphones and other tracking devices) would be "invisible" in the data if the data is used for further planning of infrastructure and local development.

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Real-Time Traffic Routing for Highway Controllers in Canada

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Real-Time Traffic Routing for Highway Controllers in Canada

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Benefits:

Improved Safety During Severe Weather: Real-time traffic routing is crucial on Canadian highways to manage safety during severe weather conditions. It allows for quick rerouting around icy patches and snowstorms, thus enhancing driver safety.

Efficiency in Urban Traffic Management: In dense urban centers like Toronto and Vancouver, real-time traffic systems effectively reduce congestion by offering alternative routes during rush hours, streamlining traffic flow and shortening travel times.

Drawbacks:

Costly Implementation: Covering Canada’s vast geography with a real-time traffic routing system requires a hefty financial investment due to the extensive infrastructure and technology needed.

Limited Reach in Remote Areas: The effectiveness of real-time traffic management is reduced in remote or rural Canadian areas due to poor internet connectivity, leading to unreliable traffic updates and routing.

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One of the benefits of real time traffic routing includes better forward planning for time critical journeys.

For example, checking congestion before leaving for a journey to the airport to catch a flight, allowing the user to build in more time.

One of the negative impacts is an increase in rat running, resulting in reduced quality of residential life, wear and tear on side roads and safety issues.

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Benefits - Generally, real-time traffic routing greatly improves transport efficiency, and travel times and for some, fuel saving. Congestion on the roads is also largely reduced and the traffic management has become more efficient.

Challenges - One of the biggest challenges is instances where real-time data is unavailable or inaccurate owing to limited or compromised data sources. This may lead to the creation of algorithm biases that disadvantage other road users. Another challenge is unanticipated natural disasters like floods, fires, gale winds etc. Not certain that such apps are coded to anticipate such eventualities and if so, how to quickly adapt to emergencies.

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For individuals (Drivers and Non-Drivers):

Benefits:

Reduced Travel Time: Drivers can avoid congested routes, potentially reaching their destinations faster.

Improved Fuel Efficiency: By avoiding stop-and-go traffic, drivers might save fuel.

Reduced Stress: Knowing about traffic jams in advance allows drivers to plan their journeys better and potentially avoid frustration.

Enhanced Public Transport Use: Real-time information on delays or reroutes can encourage people to use public transport. (Non-drivers)

Problems:

Over-reliance on Technology

Rat-Running: Increased use of alternate routes can lead to congestion in previously quiet neighborhoods, impacting non-drivers.

Privacy Concerns: Sharing location data raises privacy concerns for some individuals.

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One issue that warrants attention is the ethical dilemma surrounding the use of real-time traffic data.

While it offers significant benefits in terms of efficiency and safety, such as incidents alert and suggestions regarding environmental footprint; it also raises questions especially regarding algorithmic biases and equitable acess.

As technology continues to advance, it's crucial for stakeholders to address these ethical concerns and ensure that real-time routing systems prioritize user privacy and data security.

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Pros: smart cities mean also efficient city so a quality development of the service and eventually a positive response from the citizens, especially in big metropolises where you have a lot of people go in and out

Contro: not be able to choose rather if you want to be a part of this or not, not knowing who’s managing your data and correlating to a sense of privacy deprivation

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The obvious benefit is convenience and fuel savings to the end user but how much it might cost the smaller cities with how dependent everyone could get on this technology might be a trade off not worthwhile.

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Analogous to the trolley problem, there are many advantages and disadvantages that come with real-time traffic routing. For instance, one positive effect for both individual drivers as well as for urban planners and authorities is that traffic flows are generally easier to predict and plan which can also be used positively in relation to certain environmental factors such as fuel consumption and exhaust emissions.

Examples of disadvantages when authorities purchase this data are high costs and dependence on external providers, while there is often a lack of internal know-how to use the data effectively.

A particular issue I would like to address is the overloading of small alternative roads when there is a traffic jam on the main traffic route. Since navigation devices offer their users the fastest route by default, traffic jams on the main route lead to overloading of smaller streets that are actually designed for much less traffic. This phenomenon is of course particularly bad for residents along these alternative routes. One article even stated that in a town in Austria, during the busy holiday season, a traffic light was installed to turn red and artificially create traffic jams in order to prevent road users from leaving the main traffic route on the motorway.

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Pros: Less traffic jams and less waiting time at traffic lights, facilitating more fluid traffic.

Cons: If it does not work correctly, for example due to a large storm or earthquake, which is when it would be most needed, much greater traffic chaos could occur.

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Ensure that directives of the higher authorities are strictly followed by the branch administrations

Issue circulations and directives in accordance with the traffic law and its amendments

Undertake the authority's responsibility for traffic system related issues

Register vehicles and issue driving licences

Follow up systems and regulations of registering vehicles

Supervise the 47 driving schools and evaluate their performance

Supervise cars agents and showrooms

Follow up systems of exporting and scraping cars, and keep records of these events

Supervise, follow up, and issue licences for activities of passengers and luggage transportation

Prepare estimated annual revenues of the General Administration of Traffic Control Police and the branch administrations

Decide and collect fines imposed on violators of traffic regulations

Work on preventing traffic accidents and handle accidents once they happen

Prepare annual statistics on traffic accidents, violations of traffic laws, driving licences, and vehicle licences

Supervise closely the sixteen points all over the Kingdom that check the safety and efficiency of vehicles

Represent the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the GCC conferences concerning Traffic Control

Cooperate with the Traffic Control Police administrations in the GCC countries

Represent the Public Security in and out of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia concerning vehicles safety

Prepare programs that help the public know and follow the traffic regulation and pay attention to safety instructions

Liaise with the Ministry of Information to transmit the above mentioned programs

Represent the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the local and international conferences on Traffic Control, and exchange experiences with similar administrations

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One of the benefits is traffic management, as this provides a real time overview of traffic conditions, helping authorities to take necessary actions to alleviate congestion.

One problem would be if there is any technical issue. A failure can lead to incorrect traffic management.

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The financial costs of installing sensors may be prohibitive, and depending on the location and appearance, impact negatively on the built or natural environment - for example historic buildings or areas that also accommodate wildlife, including birds.

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Pros and Cons of realtime traffic routing

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Pros and Cons of realtime traffic routing

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Advantages of Intelligent Traffic Systems

Improved Traffic Management due to automated routing

Enhanced Safety also related to automated routing and traffic management

Increased Efficiencies in fuel consumption by optimizing traffic flow

Environmental Benefits: The reduction in traffic congestion and improved fuel efficiency leads to a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. Electronic toll collection and smart parking systems reduce the need for physical infrastructure, leading to less land usage and disruption of natural ecosystems.

Disadvantages of Intelligent Traffic Systems

High Implementation and Maintenance Costs

Reliability and Technical Issues:

Privacy Concerns: Ensuring the privacy of individuals while utilizing ITS technologies remains a significant challenge in their deployment and acceptance.

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For Suburban Communities: Implementing real-time routing technologies may require significant investment in infrastructure and technology. Smaller communities may struggle to justify or afford these costs, limiting their ability to implement effective traffic management systems.

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For Suburban Communities: Real-time traffic routing can help suburban communities manage their local traffic flows more effectively. This is particularly useful during peak hours or special events when traffic congestion can be a significant issue. It also helps residents find quicker routes to their destinations, reducing frustration and potential pollution.

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-Advantage : Time Savings, Fuel Efficiency and Accurate Arrival Estimates

-Disadvantage : Overreliance and Privacy Concerns

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Privacy Concerns and data leakage