A coworker introduced me to Waze after another one led me astray and made me late for an assignment. Ever since it came into my life, I sing loud praises about it. Waze has improved my productivity and decreased daily stress. Waze is the best GPS app for its diverse features that make life and driving convenient. I wanted to share with you some of the wonderful things I've learned over the past year of using this great app.
Always have faith in Waze. Living in Northern Virginia means fighting traffic and lots of construction that could slow down your drive. The one I didn’t follow Waze’s directions to take an alternative route, I regretted it. Leaving from work one day, I questioned why Waze was adamant to send me through residential streets I’d never taken before. I realized too late that Waze was trying to get me to go around standstill traffic. That was the last time I let that happen. So far, it's not been wrong.
On the lookout. There’s been an increase in patrol cars in hidden or plain sight where I live. Other Waze drivers have been brilliant at notifying other drivers. This is the higher tech method of flashing your lights at someone as a warning. I don’t speed (or try not to make it a habit), but it’s nice to be aware of police cars.
In it together. I do my part to inform Waze drivers of hazards on the road. Each thanks I get from another driver encourages me to continue setting relevant alerts. In return, whenever there’s an obnoxious pothole, lane closures, or something else on the road, I always return the favor and press thumbs up. This system of getting users to participate in real-time situations means Waze can adjust its directions quickly.
Hit the snooze button. Much like a calculator, Waze takes the inconvenience out of doing things by hand. If I have somewhere I need to be the next day, and I want to arrive by a certain time, I go into Waze and plan my drive. There's not guessing on my end. Waze is darn accurate at updating your arrival time. Once you’ve set your planned drive, Waze will notify you when it’s getting close to your time to leave.
Syncs with your calendar. Each event on my calendar now includes exact addresses. Waze will sync with my calendar automatically (as long as you have the option turned on), making one less thing I need to worry about. Upcoming events are in my planned drives list.
Plan your day. Syncing your calendar with Waze is a huge productivity boost. But you can make even better use of it. If you’re anal about time or have a lot of traveling to do, Waze makes planning simple. When you have free time (or you can make it part of your planning time), just take a few minutes to look at your planned drives. I go in and delete or add as needed. For example, last week I had to cancel a tutoring session because of a work assignment. I went into Waze and cancelled that event. I still had a later tutoring session I needed to make though, so I used Waze to determine when I needed to leave to get to that session on time. No more guessing for me. I set what time I wanted to arrive by and Waze let me know, based on traffic, the best time to leave. I checked it the next day for an update (because travel times change), and could breathe knowing I had time to get between events.
Easy directions. I’m the driver who will ride in the right lane for as long as possible, because I know in 10 miles I need to turn right. If I need to be in the left lane to turn left, I’ll stay in the left lane. But I get anxious about those short turns. Turn right in 0.1 miles. Then turn right again in 0.2 miles. Should I right in the middle lane just in case I need to change lanes? I’m an anxious driver. Waze will give me two steps when I need to turn quickly. It saves my sanity.
Enjoy the ride. You’ve got a long drive — 10 miles on Route 1. It’ll take you 15 minutes (or longer if there's traffic), but Waze will let you know. You might as well sit back and relax. Stop glancing at the GPS and keep your eyes on the road.
It’s routine. I know how to get to work, but I still use Waze during my commute. I use it so much I’ve now got a magical power: I can see into the future. Once I hit a certain spot in my commute, based on the minutes I can tell if it will be an easy ride or if I will encounter traffic. There’s not always an alert notifying you of dense traffic, but there are subtle ways of letting you know if you will hit stop-and-go traffic at some point. It helps to know the traffic situation in your area. So if you live in the woods, you won’t have to deal with traffic jams on two-lane roads. But Waze will take me a different route if it realizes there’s a faster way. If not, even if I encounter traffic, I stick to it and I’ve never been led astray.
Stupid left turns. I hate left turns. I hate drivers who want to make left turns in the most troublesome places. Waze has a feature that reduces, as best it can, those terrible left turns. For that, I’m extremely grateful.
What's your favorite GPS app, and why?
