Fellow drivers: I have been using am Application on my iPhone called "Waze", which has impressed me enough as a truely useful tool for swift driving that I thought I would share. Waze is a navigation app with a twist. It functions as a decent turn by turn navigation app. But what this one adds is a "crowd sourcing" function which is actually really useful in several ways. Users of this application provide feedback on traffic conditions, roadside hazards and (my favorite) warnings on the real time presence of law enforcement activities. The application knows when you slow down due to traffic and will display this situation to other Waze users behind you. When traffic conditions in real time become sufficiently bad, the application will re-route you to a less congested route toward your programed destination. This happened today while traveling up I-95 from Washington, DC to my home in Southeastern PA. As we approached Baltimore, the system routed me off 95, onto the Baltimore-Washington parkway and through the 895 Harbor tunnel. This was due to a backup on I-95 ahead approaching the Fort McHenry Tunnel. This re-route saved me a good 15 minutes on this trip. When you pass a stationary cop "taking pictures", you hit a button on the display and a report is posted which is immediately visible to the Waze users behind you, warning of the speed trap. There are now enough other Waze users that I am being accurately warned ahead of time for about 80% of the speed traps set up on the highway. The system seeks fresh feedback, so you can turst that the informarion is pretty recent and accurate. Here is a link to their web site for further information: http://www.waze.com/ I have no interest in this app or its creators, I just find this to be a very useful tool and recommend to those of you travelling with Smartphone based navigation support.
