Over-relying on Waze..

Driving to KL everyday back and forth from Shah Alam can be very annoying, frustrating and agitating. Thanks to our very “efficient” traffic system. Malaysians are “forced” to drive due to lack of efficient public transport system and it is not convenient to grab a bus, LRT or commuter train because of poor and insufficient parking space at the stations. Most of the stations are not within a walking distance which makes Malaysians like me have no choice but to drive a car everyday not only to work but also to commute from one place to another. It is very pitiful that we have to spend most of our hard earn salary just to pay for car instalments every month. Knowing the fact that car prices in Malaysia is one of the highest in the world just rubbed salt into the wound. Driving a car to work as a solution because of poor public transportation does not end my story here. There is another problem that Malaysian drivers in big city like KL has to face every day…traffic jam! If I were to drive to KL from Shah Alam using Federal Highway, it will take me only about 20 minutes, BUT, I can only do that after 12 midnight when most of the people are having nightmares about traffic while they are sleeping. If I go out of home at 7 am using Federal Highway, probably it will take me 2 hours to reach KL. It won’t be much different if I were to use other roads either.

Hmmm…what choice do I have? What choice do we have? Yup! Not much! Life goes on and we still need to go to work to have a decent life. Hopefully one day our car can fly!

Using tolled-highways may not be a solution to have a smooth drive (anyway, do we have non-tolled highways?). Most of us have to use tolled-highways to minimize the risk of having caught in a worse traffic. In Malaysia, you pay toll to get “stucked” in traffic, and worst still, you will be caught in bad traffic before and after you pay toll. That’s great isn’t it?

Most of city drivers used GPS like Papago and Garmin previously to avoid bad traffics but most of the “dedicated” GPS mentioned are paid GPS and it is not cheap to buy. The good thing is only that it can be used in offline mode as well. That is why most Malaysians are turning into Waze GPS which is an online GPS application which helps not only to show direction, but also to avoid traffic jam and shortest distance to the desired destination. It can prompt you on any road hazards and accidents few miles upfront and also if there is a police in front!

According to Wikipedia, Waze formerly "Freemap", is GPS based geographical navigation application program for smartphones with GPS support and display screens which provides turn-by-turn information and user-submitted travel times and route details, downloading location-dependent information over mobile networks. Waze was developed in Israel, funded by early-stage American venture capital firm Bluerun Ventures, and was acquired by Google in 2013.

Waze uses the information from your journey to calculate average speed, check for errors, improve road layout and learn road and turn direction. There is no need to make special trips with Waze. In fact, Waze works best on your regular trips and commuting.

The maps and navigation are powered by users. The more people drive with Waze open, the better the navigation.

According to Google, in order for Waze to accurately give you the fastest or shortest route, depending on your settings, it needs to have accurate data for all neighboring segments and routes. Waze collects data for every road driven with the app open.  Next time a specific road is driven, Waze will know to compare data between each possible route and will know better to suggest the optimal route based on your preferences.

However, sometimes there are better routes than the one suggested by Waze.  Routing issues like this happen because the system works on real time and average statistics. Google suggests that you take the suggested route a few times so that Waze can collect and start to use the new data in its routing algorithms.

If, in your estimation, Waze doesn't give you the best route, it may be due to the following:

• A map error somewhere along your preferred route.
• A lack of correct speed/traffic data for that route.
• A lack or correct speed/traffic data on the route it is trying to send you on.

Waze was built assuming a data network connection would be present all, or at least most, of the time. For all aspects of Waze to operate, you must have an active data connection on your mobile device. This connection enriches Waze with real-time traffic related information and ensures an up-to-date map. Without an internet connection, you won't be able to locate or navigate a route.

Another best thing I like about Waze is the estimated time arrival (ETA) where you will know how long it will take for you to reach the destination and you can plan your travel ahead.