Reading Time: 2 minutes

That’s right—apps designed to help you save time on your commute are destroying communities and putting lives at risk.

And we’re all complicit! While Waze is one of the worst offenders, because it was a pioneer of “community input,” they all do it. Google Maps does it. Apple Maps does it.

And like so much of what Silicon Valley does in the name of progress (commerce), it’s the public that foots the bill.

Allow me to explain.

Cities and towns, when properly designed, have explicit thoroughfares. These are the busy main streets that route traffic in and out of downtown. You know this. You drive on them.

Residential streets branch off from these thoroughfares. This is where people live, and where parks and schools are built. These streets are designed for local traffic—and until the 21st century, you needed some insider knowledge to navigate them effectively.

Why? Well, rat-running is nothing new. This is the practice of skirting off a thoroughfare and speeding down a residential street in an attempt to beat traffic. But this required intimate knowledge of the residential streets—as clever cities built traffic diverters to curb this danger.

You’ve seen them—roundabouts, diversions, one-way streets. These are designed to keep residential streets for local traffic only. And to slow cars down.

But public access of GPS technology at the turn of the century changed that. Now, anyone could access detailed navigational knowledge. Which was good!

Then Silicon Valley map-apps upped the ante with the addition of real-time traffic data.

Now, if your main thoroughfare gets jammed up, Waze or Google can simply re-route you through a complex maze of residential streets to help you jump the queue. They’ll even have you avoiding diverters and roundabouts!

And, because your goal is beat traffic, human nature prevents you from driving slow.

You’ll floor it through 30 km/h zones. You’ll run stop signs. Rip past parks. And you’ll add traffic congestion to areas not designed to handle it.

As a kicker, the end result is moot. Because rat-running is no longer an insider secret, you won’t be “in the know.” You’ll be queued up at a stop sign with two-dozen others trying to merge back onto the thoroughfare.

This congestion not only creates an immediate danger to residents, but it’ll result in official complaints… followed by city action in the name of safety. Such as building more roundabouts, diverters, one-way streets and even bringing in police enforcement. At your cost.

Basically, we all lose.

Well, except Waze. They keep printing money—at your neighbourhood’s expense.

So what can you do? If you’re affected, you can report your concerns directly to Google and Waze about rat-running. They claim to be listening.

But ultimately? You can stay on your thoroughfares.

Remember: you’re not stuck in traffic. You are traffic.