Location Based Platforms - Waze

There is power when social media hits daily tasks such as driving. Imagine yourself running late to the airport, you are cruising down the freeway and to your dismay, a traffic jam. You arrive at the airport only to find out that your airplane has left without you. What is one to do to prevent such stress inducing disasters? Now imagine yourself running late to the airport, you are cruising down the freeway, when an application on your phone, called Waze, warns you of an upcoming traffic jam. This warning gives you enough time to get off on the nearest exit, allowing you to make it to the airport on time and reducing a lot of stress.
Waze is an application that uses voice navigation if you need directions to a destination, it is similar to Google and Apple Maps. The biggest draw that keeps people using Waze over Google maps or Apple Maps is the real-time traffic information. It does this through its users, the description from the Waze website says it all,
"The power of Waze is in your hands. By simply driving around with the Waze client installed on your smartphone, you can share real-time information that translates into traffic conditions and road structure. When you use Waze, you can also actively report to the community on traffic, accidents, police traps, blocked roads, weather conditions and much more. Waze collects this information and immediately analyzes it in order to provide other Wazers with the most optimal route to their destination, 24 hours a day."
Through an initiative called Connected Citizens, it has been partnering and sharing data with dozens of cities around the world to help streamline day-to-day traffic patterns and inform long-term infrastructure decisions. In Boston, transportation officials pored through Waze data to find streets with rampant double-parking — and to hand out tickets to avoid backups. In Rio de Janeiro, the city is using Waze to help plan for the 2016 Olympics. Los Angeles, whose police chief had initially criticized Waze for interfering with his department's work by allowing users to mark speed traps, began working with the company last year.
All of this has created what some are calling the "Waze effect," where residents are getting mad due to Waze leading more traffic down their streets. Waze's view, "If it's public, and taxpayers are paying for that road, we want it in the map."
Being a "Wazer" gives me this little feeling of getting away with something. Being able to see where a policeman is sitting, a traffic jam coming up, or a road that is closed before I actually get to it has come in handy. I would highly recommend this navigation tool to anyone.

What are your Waze stories, what do you think about being a "Wazer?" Share your comments!!

• 
  

http://www.mensjournal.com/gear/cars/waze-the-app-that-changed-driving-20160208
http://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-waze-and-how-to-use-it-2013-6?op=1
https://support.google.com/waze/answer/6078702?hl=en