Frustrated Residents Want Waze To Stop Sending Traffic Through Their Town

When it comes to navigation apps for your smartphone, Waze is one of the most popular and reliable. It allows users to alert fellow users about any traffic jams, accidents, construction, police presence, and more, thus calculating alternative routes to take that will save them time and stress. However, in certain vacation spots across the U.S., many frustrated locals of these communities are blaming Waze for the high influx of traffic clogging up their neighborhoods.

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Southern Shores, North Carolina has always been a vacation hot spot. Unfortunately for many residents and authorities in the area, it is also a hot spot for bumper-to-bumper traffic of tourists. Despite the town’s efforts of setting up locals-only signs, barricades, and speed bumps, traffic congestion still remains. So in an attempt to alleviate the amount of stress being driven into Southern Shores, city officials are taking the fight to Waze.

How Does Waze Add To The Traffic Problem?

Before, whenever the residents of Southern Shores set up detours and barricades, it didn’t resolve its traffic issue. It only relocated it to another part of town. Even though apps like Waze would recalculate a new route for drivers, there would be no such thing as a shortcut. And, in some extreme cases, caused tourists and locals to get confrontational.

With Memorial Day and Labor Day weekend being two very popular vacation times for the town, a “No Through Traffic” resolution was passed to concentrate incoming drivers to a single route, rather than have them spread out throughout the town and cause more irritation for local residents. To make sure incoming drivers stay the course, Mayor Elizabeth Morey spoke with Waze employees to make sure the app will not reroute users throughout the town.

How Do Local Communities Fix Giant Surges of Traffic?

While this resolution may not solve the town’s traffic issues completely, it does give locals hope that at least some Waze users won’t add to it. Plus, locals will have access to the shortcuts only they know about to help them navigate around the more congested tourist areas. Residents of Southern Shores have also expressed the need for another bridge to link the mainland to the Outer Banks, but received much pushback from environmental activists, delaying the project from being put together.

The small town of Southern Shores is just one example of navigation apps like Waze creating excessive amounts of traffic in residential communities. While replanning America’s roads is one option many authorities are looking into to lighten the flow of traffic in smaller communities, it remains unknown whether it will solve this problem completely. Regulation seems to be the main tactic to keep locals happy from the flocks of tourists invading their towns. But personally knowing a local that will let you park at their home is another way you can get what you want without burdening everyone else.