People finding their 'waze' to once-hidden streets

[cpzilliacus]

[h/t MTantillo]

AP via WTOP Radio: People finding their 'waze' to once-hidden streets

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- When the people whose houses hug the narrow warren of streets paralleling the busiest urban freeway in America began to see bumper-to-bumper traffic crawling by their homes a year or so ago, they were baffled.

When word spread that the explosively popular new smartphone app Waze was sending many of those cars through their neighborhood in a quest to shave five minutes off a daily rush-hour commute, they were angry and ready to fight back.

They would outsmart the app, some said, by using it to report phony car crashes and traffic jams on their streets that would keep the shortcut-seekers away.

Months later, the cars are still there, and the people are still mad.

"The traffic is unbearable now. You can't even walk your dog," said Paula Hamilton, who lives on a once quiet little street in the Santa Monica Mountains in a neighborhood called Sherman Oaks.

[NE2]

Solution: walk your dog and continually get in the way of the cut-through traffic.

[admtrap]

Problem:  Traffic is so bad that crawling down a tiny residential street is the best option

LA Solution:  Close the tiny residential street.

Sorry.  Put speed bumps and 4 way stops in?  Yeah, that's not going to change the equation that Sleepy Dogwalk Lane is at least moving and the 405 isn't.   Literally the only way to turn people with smartphones away at this point would be to pick a point, and cleave the road into a pair of cul de sacs.  No thru traffic, no shortcut. 

[colinstu]

Speed bumps suck for everybody and Stop signs aren't supposed to be used for traffic calming purposes.

Surprised they didn't mention "rat running" because that's what that's called. I do it to avoid I-43 traffic at times in Milwaukee. Reading wikipedia, sometimes signs not permitting left/right turns onto streets like these during rush hour times can be used. Throw some police enforcement there and everyone should be happy. Or just fix the 405.

[PHLBOS]

Stop signs aren't supposed to be used for traffic calming purposes.

Feel free to stop by southeastren PA; there are tons of STOP signs erected on local (non-PennDOT) roads used for speed control.

[jwolfer]

There I'd a neighborhood near me that had a 4 way stop on a 4 lane collector road at a residential street

[1995hoo]

I know of a number of neighborhoods where the stop signs are used less for speed control per se and more to annoy people so they'll find another route instead of cutting through the neighborhood. While I understand why it's annoying and often dangerous to have commuters cutting through residential areas, the solution isn't to throw up stop signs everywhere, it's to figure out how to get the arterial route's traffic to flow better.

[bzakharin]

You don't need GPSs to do this. Assuming it's close enough to (one of) your destination(s), you probably already know the area. Radio stations will also tell you about jams on major freeways. A related practice is traffic light dodging. For right turns they could at least add a dedicated turn lane to obviate the need for this (assuming turning on red is allowed).

[vdeane]

You don't need GPSs to do this. Assuming it's close enough to (one of) your destination(s), you probably already know the area. Radio stations will also tell you about jams on major freeways. A related practice is traffic light dodging. For right turns they could at least add a dedicated turn lane to obviate the need for this (assuming turning on red is allowed).

With Waze, people now don't need to know the area to take the shortcut... and as a result, the shortcut gets jammed.  From the sounds of the article, I wouldn't be surprised if people have issues getting out of their own driveways there and probably have a significantly lengthened commute, all because of something they have no control over.

[jeffandnicole]

From the linked story:

If they have, they've obviously failed. Killeen said her four-mile commute to UCLA, where she teaches a public relations class, can take two hours during rush hour. "The streets on the west side are no longer a secret for locals, and people are angry," she said.

That's an average of 2 mph.  Most walkers will walk 1 mile every 15-20 minutes. 

While I'm sure there's a congestion issue, and while I'm sure there may have been a day where you just couldn't move, I call BS to this statement.  Last year during a snowstorm it took nearly 5 hours for me to drive what I can normally do in about 45 - 60 minutes.   However, I don't go around telling people it can take me 5 hours to drive home, because of a single incident.

[admtrap]

From the linked story:

If they have, they've obviously failed. Killeen said her four-mile commute to UCLA, where she teaches a public relations class, can take two hours during rush hour. "The streets on the west side are no longer a secret for locals, and people are angry," she said.

That's an average of 2 mph.  Most walkers will walk 1 mile every 15-20 minutes. 

While I'm sure there's a congestion issue, and while I'm sure there may have been a day where you just couldn't move, I call BS to this statement.  Last year during a snowstorm it took nearly 5 hours for me to drive what I can normally do in about 45 - 60 minutes.   However, I don't go around telling people it can take me 5 hours to drive home, because of a single incident.

I attended UCLA.  The congestion around UCLA is, in fact, about that bad, especially on its western side, between campus and the 405.  A big culprit is the way the city of LA handles small signalized intersections - no dedicated left turn lane or left turn phase means traffic can move (slowly) until the next guy wants to turn left.  Then the entire street grinds to a halt, until either the light turns red, or someone going the opposite direction also wants to turn left.

Which makes it possible to be ten cars back from a light, and still require four full cycles before you can clear the intersection.

Add in the very high apartment density to the low traffic capacity streets, and it often is faster to walk a couple miles than it is to get in your car.  It's actually one of the few places in LA where a bicycle is a reasonable transportation option, rather than a political pipe dream.  Except the high density of very impatient, very frustrated drivers also makes it one of the most dangerous places to bike.

[mrsman]

From the linked story:

If they have, they've obviously failed. Killeen said her four-mile commute to UCLA, where she teaches a public relations class, can take two hours during rush hour. "The streets on the west side are no longer a secret for locals, and people are angry," she said.

That's an average of 2 mph.  Most walkers will walk 1 mile every 15-20 minutes. 

While I'm sure there's a congestion issue, and while I'm sure there may have been a day where you just couldn't move, I call BS to this statement.  Last year during a snowstorm it took nearly 5 hours for me to drive what I can normally do in about 45 - 60 minutes.   However, I don't go around telling people it can take me 5 hours to drive home, because of a single incident.

I attended UCLA.  The congestion around UCLA is, in fact, about that bad, especially on its western side, between campus and the 405.  A big culprit is the way the city of LA handles small signalized intersections - no dedicated left turn lane or left turn phase means traffic can move (slowly) until the next guy wants to turn left.  Then the entire street grinds to a halt, until either the light turns red, or someone going the opposite direction also wants to turn left.

Which makes it possible to be ten cars back from a light, and still require four full cycles before you can clear the intersection.

Add in the very high apartment density to the low traffic capacity streets, and it often is faster to walk a couple miles than it is to get in your car.  It's actually one of the few places in LA where a bicycle is a reasonable transportation option, rather than a political pipe dream.  Except the high density of very impatient, very frustrated drivers also makes it one of the most dangerous places to bike.

I'm surprised that there aren't already signs in place to block thru traffic.  In many areas of LA, when I was growing up in the 80's there were already rush hour turn restrictions to prevent thru traffic on many local streets.

The problem is that once they put on the turn restriction, every one has to abide by it. So even the residents would have to have their commute much harder and backtrack to their homes, so that commuters won't benefit.