Waze and means

EDITOR’S LETTER

I recently started using the WAZE app to help me navigate Intown’s traffic. For those who aren’t smartphone savvy, WAZE is a community based app where motorists submit travel times and route details (such as accidents or road work) to help other drivers find the quickest way to their destinations. It’s very cool, and yet I can’t shake an existential feeling of guilt.

First let me say that I hate driving a car. I was never one of those teenagers hankering for an expensive car; I wanted to live somewhere that made owning a car obsolete – like London, Paris or New York. I have hopes that before I move on to the next plane of existence Atlanta’s public transportation will rival those aforementioned international cities. It’s getting there, but not quite yet. I can walk to restaurants, shops, the supermarket, etc. but I still need a car to go see family on the southside, get to INtown’s main office up by the Perimeter and to parts of the city that don’t require multiple train, bus, Uber rides before reaching the final destination.

Collin Kelley collin@atlantaintownpaper.com

So, for now, I’m still driving and I’m always looking for something to help me find the quickest route through Atlanta’s terrible traffic. I had been using Google Maps, but all of my fellow driving friends kept talking about WAZE offering more real-time information and alternate routes to avoid traffic jams.

The first time I used WAZE was over near Emory when I was running late to a dinner date and was stuck in a tailback on Clairmont Road.

I clicked on WAZE and it routed me down several small residential streets and had me to the restaurant in 10 minutes rather than 20. Cool beans!

A couple of weeks later, I was stuck on westbound DeKalb Avenue during rush hour as all the cars try to turn left at Arizona Avenue. Again, WAZE directed me to the nearest side street and took me on a twisty but quick route through Lake Claire and Candler Park. Other cars were ahead of me and behind me, no doubt also taking a shortcut through these quiet, neighborhood streets. This is where my guilt set it.

I started noticing the “Slow Down” signs in yards, a look of dismay from a woman walking with her toddler as the line of cars passed her on the sidewalk. Neighborhood streets have long been used as cut throughs between main arteries, but WAZE has upped the ante by showing drivers how to do it so easily.

And then, once again, I was stuck on Clairmont Road and WAZE directed to me on to quiet Clairmont Circle to help get me over to North Decatur Road. Except in this case, I was stuck in another jam as so many cars had turned onto the neighborhood street. I felt badly for the homeowners simply trying to back out of their driveways or park on the street. I can only imagine the noise level both inside and outside their homes.

I vowed to stop using WAZE, but I haven’t yet. What I am doing is leaving a little earlier, avoiding rush hour meetups and finding my own alternate routes that might add a few more minutes to my drive, but help me avoid traffic. Unless, it’s an emergency or your boss is on the verge of firing you for being tardy again, being 10 or 15 minutes late, while a social faux pas, isn’t the end of the world.

And please – PLEASE! -- start using your turn signals and learning how to use a four-way stop. This is learner permit 101 stuff, y’all. If we all work together we can… ahem… make Atlanta traffic great again.