I've noticed some of the "Waze shortcuts' making their way into Google maps. Some of these are pretty hairy. For anyone familiar with SF, here's an example:<p>To get from 8th & Bryant to 3rd & Bryant, Google Maps/Waze wants you to get on I-80 at 8th and exit at 4th. That would be OK but you enter 80 from the left side of the interstate and must exit within a <i>quarter mile</i> to the right side of the interstate. This means crossing 4 lanes to get there. It's actually do-able in bumper-to-bumper gridlock but when traffic is moving it's pretty dangerous. Why not just go down Bryant Street? The "shortcut" can't save more 2 minutes at best and at worst costs 10+ minutes.<p>Waze used to be good for spotting cops and speed traps. Now it's just a collection of bad "short cuts".
This problem is solved in Berzerkeley and for cheap. [0]<p>[0] <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8633369,-122.2652156,3a,75y,77.61h,70.47t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sjqjUFjtnBrzM0np-WUZa-w!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DjqjUFjtnBrzM0np-WUZa-w%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D191.48755%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8633369,-122.2652156,3a,75y,...</a>
Add diverters so it's not practical to use a street for through traffic. Portland is starting to do this on certain "neighborhood greenways".
LA has always seemed like a terrible quality-of-life city to live in because of the traffic. The amount of time spent commuting makes me wonder why tech people, at least, don't want to move out of there.
Bollards. Give residents proximity sensors which allow them and only them access thru the bollards. Piggy backing will happen but they'll be waiting a log time.<p>Not saying place them everywhere just make it so the open streets are more mazelike so when friends need to visit there is a way in, it just happens to be byzantine, frustrating interlopers who want to cut through.
Apps that change their users' behavior can have massive public policy effects. Whether you think this change in traffic patterns is okay or not, it was not made with the public's interests in mind, nor with the input of democratically-elected representatives.
Congested streets are the result of them being managed by the government, they aren't caused by poor road design.<p>All roads should be privatized, and consumers should pay for them like every other good and service they use.<p>How do popular restaurants, sports stadiums, and every other aspect of the economy deal with massive demand and limited supply?<p>Raising prices, and in the long-term making capital investments to increase supply.<p>Street congestion should be the quintessential textbook example in Econ 101 to explain the concepts of economic shortages.<p>Can you imagine any other good or service whose price never changes based on demand NOT having shortages?<p>Imagine a concert hall that charged the same price for seats whether the Rolling Stones or Vanilla Ice is playing?<p>The experiment with public streets has been a massive failure, and it's time to be ended.