[ndaiger]

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

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

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

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

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

[ghaff]

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

[wyclif]

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

[bsagdiyev]

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

[well-here-we]

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

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