Why Navigation Apps, Working Properly, Can Make Traffic Flows Worse -- And What To Do About It

Why Navigation Apps, Working Properly, Can Make Traffic Flows Worse -- And What To Do About It

4 years ago
Anonymous $JavybBYWR5

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20191003/09240543113/why-navigation-apps-working-properly-can-make-traffic-flows-worse-what-to-do-about-it.shtml

Techdirt has just written about how advanced digital technology can be used for less-than-benign purposes, simply because it is a tool that can be applied in both good and bad ways. A fascinating analysis by Jane Macfarlane in IEEE Spectrum explores something similar: how new technology being used as designed, and with only the best intentions, can nonetheless give rise to potentially serious problems. The article is about how the increasingly-popular navigation apps like Waze, Apple Maps, and Google Maps are "causing chaos
":

City planners around the world have predicted traffic on the basis of residential density, anticipating that a certain amount of real-time changes will be necessary in particular circumstances. To handle those changes, they have installed tools like stoplights and metering lights, embedded loop sensors, variable message signs, radio transmissions, and dial-in messaging systems. For particularly tricky situations -- an obstruction, event, or emergency -- city managers sometimes dispatch a human being to direct traffic.