Residents put up fake reports on Waze to divert traffic

Residents in Los Angeles County are angry at Google Waze for sending traffic through their resident areas. Previously quiet roads are now supposedly filled with traffic due apparently to Google Waze who has been diverting people off a local freeway and onto these previously quiet roads.

Located in Los Angeles Country (home to over 7.5 million registered vehicles), the freeway at issue (Interstate 405) carries 379,000 cars a day.

“We spent billions of dollars expanding the 405 to 10 lanes—why don’t they take that?” asked an agitated Tam Wynn. – CNBC

Waze is Google’s crowdsourced mapping app that shows users the quickest route to their destination by relying on user input if accidents, weather or police are effecting traffic. In many instances, Waze will divert users off busy highways and onto smaller, local roads.

As CNET has reported, this incident with local residents seems to have caught Google off guard.

A Google spokeswoman told residents it’s app is not the problem, it’s LA traffic….Indeed, the US Department of Transportation said the notoriously busy I-405 sees 379,000 cars a day. – CNET

Rather than press their city and state government to help with the massive traffic issues around the city, local residents have decided to take back their quiet roads by logging fake accidents which would deter traffic from those areas.

As Google noted though, if Waze receives a major report yet multiple others drive through that area, the report will be automatically removed. There has been no word yet if the local residents are planning to stage actual crashes in the future.