Originally Posted by
KD5NRH
Such earth-shattering news! I'm so glad they thought that was more important than letting you pay attention to the road.
As for cyclist notifications, there have already been a ton of complaints in the Waze forums about the lack of configurability of the notifications; it's all or nothing, which in some areas means a steady stream of "vehicle on shoulder" and "red light camera ahead" announcements.
If a car is on the shoulder while I'm driving, why would I need to be notified of it? And just how should knowledge of the existence of a red light camera change my driving at all? I'm not going around looking for non-camera-equipped lights to blow through.
My bad, seems the info on how many people are using it in an area only comes up when you first turn on the app. It appears at the bottom of the screen for a couple seconds. Probably been doing it since I first started using it but I just never noticed it before.
If some app doesn't work for you then you don't use it. I drive for a living. My personal phone, which I use for navigation, is mounted on my dash. I don't take phone calls on my phone when I'm driving. I look at the screen no more than I do my speedometer or my mirrors. The Waze app I just let run on the screen but I do interact with it from time to time. I have a wireless hand-held device and a push to talk phone for my job which I have to interact with as well when I'm driving so I'm used to doing things I'd rather not be bothered with when driving.
I like knowing if there's a speed camera, police car, construction, accident or heavy traffic on the road ahead when I'm driving. Certain notifications give a voice warning. Those work real well. If I program in a destination the app will give me options if it detects heavy traffic, I like that. Of course not everyone needs this information. For me it can mean the difference between getting to the desired client destination on time or missing the scheduled time window.
Knowing there is a car on the shoulder can be quite useful, particularly if it is near an off or yield ramp ( or at night ) Sometimes those cars ( which were stopped ) decide to enter back onto the road way. Doesn't hurt to get a prompt letting you know where they are. If it bothers the user than you can choose not to use the app or just ignore the prompts. In the mean time there are other people who use the app or likely use other apps having to do with navigation. Funny but I view Waze as the modern day C.B. radio network only instead of direct voice contact with other drivers you have an app that just gives you the pertinent information. Given a choice, I'd take the app over the chatter of a two-way radio any day.
Anyway, I wasn't intending to promote the app. I just thought it would be nice if an app ( like Waze ) existed that would also included moving cyclist when giving notifications.