My Favorite Things #3

Do you need a reason to justify a smartphone?  I've got an amazing one. Please allow me to introduce my new favorite thing.  It's an app called, "WAZE".   Yowzer, this app rocks!!  Waze's tagline is "Outsmarting traffic, together" and boy, does it ever!  Driving just got better. 

Waze is a form of social media.  The more users logged in and using this app, the better off everyone on the road will be.  I turn it on when I get in the car and the gps tracks my route.  Just by having the application running while I am driving around, automatically I am alerted to many things...if police are nearby (hidden or visible), traffic is light, moderate, heavy or standstill...how fast the traffic is moving, if any accidents or broken down cars on my route up ahead, as well as any construction or other obstacles.  It is simply amazing.  And get this, as I was driving on 395 about 2 weeks ago, my phone spoke to me and said a car was stopped on the right side of the road as I was approaching it.  And sure enough, there it was.  Another time, I was alerted to a red light camera at one of the intersections I travel through frequently.

If my car is moving much less than the speed limit, the app will start to track a red line behind my waze symbol and alert the other drivers nearby how slow I am moving.  Therefore, if another route is able to be taken, drivers can take advantage of this information and benefit.

One of the neater aspects of Waze is that it will let you know who else is on the road that is using this app too.  You can see the little waze symbols moving around on the app's map.  And when you see something to report, it takes all of 2 clicks to report.  Super-duper easy. 

There are many other things this app can do...navigate, ping other waze drivers, create or join local driving groups, etc.  But I simply adore it for the real-time picture it gives me on what lies on the road ahead. 

Waze.  It's free.  Help become a bigger part of something so awesome.  Download it today.

Oh yeah, an unlimited data plan would be very helpful when running this app.  Obviously.