STOP REROUTING SANTA CRUZ BEACH GOERS DOWN RESIDENTIAL STREETS IN LOS GATOS. YOU ARE RUINING THE NEIGHBORHOOD AND SOMEONE IS GOING TO GET HURT OR WORSE, KILLED.

Please stop routing people on my street. A nice quiet street now has a steady stream of cars buzzing up my street during the morning rush, just as the kids are making their way to the bus for schools.

There should be a limit to the kinds of streets that are allowed in your algorithms.

You are ruining neighborhoods across America!!!

our app is ruining neighborhoods across the country and you have to do something about it.

I live in the Santa Cruz mountains of California, right outside of the Silicon Valley where I would guess the Waze app was likely created. We moved up there to escape the fast pace of the City, and moved to a quiet little mountain neighborhood on Glenwood Drive, in Los Gatos CA. A place where our kids could have an “old-fashion” childhood, we all know our neighbors and daily walks under the redwoods would recharge our souls.

But the last few years, with changes in technology and the growing usage of your product, the Waze app, all that has ended. We now, every weekend, live on a freeway.

You see our neighborhood is located just off on Highway 17, the main artery connecting silicon valley to the beaches of Santa Cruz County. And when beach traffic backs up on summer evenings, your app routes thousands of cars off Highway 17, and through Glenwood Drive and Glenwood Cutoff as a short cut. However, it is hardly a shortcut. Because when the drivers get to the end of Glenwood Drive or Glenwood Cutoff the have to make a left hand turn across heavy traffic traveling approximately 60 mph. It is not for the faint of heart and very often during the summer months it is impossible. Us locals won’t attempt it on the weekends and will drive 5 miles back to the town of Scotts Valley to safely enter the high on the designated onramp. THIS IS EXTREMLY dangerous for your WAZE drivers.

What ends up happening, on Saturday from about 2:00 – 12:00 pm is that our little mountain road has hundreds to thousands of cars, backed up for miles and miles as one by one they brave the left hand turn. Now all these cares that spent hours attempting your suggested shortcut route, have to merge back onto Highway 17, causing the very traffic your app attempts to alieve, to worsen.

Meanwhile, the residents that live along these roads have completely lost their quality of life on the weekend. In fact those along Glenwood Cutoff have absolute 0 access in or out of their homes during beach traffic times as this is a one lane road. We have several elderly neighbors along that stretch of road and should they require emergency service there is absolute no way they could be reached. Also we wonder if you are aware the Glenwood has a huge section that slipped out from the storms the past winter and our further deteriorating and crumbling. None of these roads are made for this amount of traffic and are literally falling apart.

In addition to limited or no access from our homes due to the Wazers, it is now common to see people urinating and shitting in our yards because they have been stuck on the road for hours, drinking, fist fighting, attempting to turn around on the single lane road and getting stuck in the ditches that run along the road, blasting their music until midnight. And then there are those that speed through the curvy roads (until they reach the inevitable standstill line to make the left turn). On father’s day I personally was involved in an incident where a Waze driver was passing a bicyclist around a blind turn, came into my lane and as he and I both swerved to avoid each other the bicyclist was ran off the road. My neighbors have countless encounters like this every time we risk our lives and drive against the beach traffic. And because it is a rural area, there are several sections of these roads that have no cell phone reception so when the serious accident happens, there is often no way to call for emergency services. I guess it doesn’t really matter, they likely couldn’t get to the scene anyways.

This is not just a quality of life complaint, This is someone is going to die complaint.

I am sorry for the tone of this email. I (we) are just frustrated. We beg of you to listen to us. To do the right thing here. To save the lives of those that will die if you choose to do nothing.

Waze is directing people down vine hill road to avoid hw1 traffic in Santa Cruz. This is causing long backups all the way up 17 as drivers wait to take the left turn onto Vine Hill effectively blocking the left lane of 17. This needs to stop, it's now making traffic worse for everyone and is very dangerous as ppl try to get out of stopped traffic into the single flowing right lane traffic

Is there empirical evidence that Waze, specifically Waze and not all GPS apps in general, is responsible for the problem in Los Gatos?

If there is a persistent problem in Los Gatos, is there any reason it cannot be resolved through law enforcement and traffic engineering?

Law enforcement for traffic problems would pay for itself with citation revenue, if the problems are as severe as characterized in these comments.

Changes to allowable traffic patterns will naturally filter to GPS based apps, and such changes would appear in Waze far earlier than any other app.

Waze is intended to find the path of least resistance via legally-accessible routes. The solution is not to set an unmanageable precedent for Waze editors to micromanage individual problems and override legal paths of travel. The solution is to actually make those paths of travel illegal or very difficult to use for through traffic, and the problem will solve itself.

I am sure this is an unpopular answer. I feel for you, Los Gatos, I have family from there and you have a special place in my heart. Trying to help you reach the most useful and wide-ranging solution.

Agree! Please stop now.

The town of Los Gatos is a bottleneck for traffic heading from the Santa Clara Valley to beach communities and so deserves special consideration from Waze for the following reasons:

1) People diverted to surface streets appear to be angry and frustrated by the gridlock they encounter. Some are endangering public safety by making rash decisions while driving.

2) Downtown businesses are losing customers during what should be their peak sales time. Margins are thin enough already I'm sure. I'd hate to see anyone go out of business.

3) Public safety is at risk if emergency vehicles can not reach people in trouble.

Thank you for considering our request.

KD

Waze has ruined the town of Los Gatos on weekends and holidays for over a year, It has made this once quiet, beautiful, pristine community a honking, music blaring grid-lock of strangers who don't care. It has hurt the merchants because passers through don't stop to buy, and through grid-lock prevents others that want to. It wouldn't surprise me how many communities have suffered the same rath of Waze technology that is used without care or conscience by the company founders and culture. Waze technology could be useful if used appropriately and responsibly to help re-reroute traffic in congested areas but technology that routes traffic through pristine residential communities is fatally flawed.

Please Stop routing people through the town streets of Los Gatos who are heading to Santa Cruz. This is causing hazards for the residents of the town and is preventing emergency vehicles from being able to get to streets where they are needed. Also it is not safe to route beach traffic on winding mountain roads where they may cause accidents by not knowing the roads as well as the residents of the area. Do not wait until a tragedy happens. Keep traffic on intended routes for going to Santa Cruz. Keep residents safe.

Please Stop routing people through the town streets of Los Gatos who are heading to Santa Cruz. This is causing hazards for the residents of the town and is preventing emergency vehicles from being able to get to streets where they are needed. Also it is not safe to route beach traffic on winding mountain roads where they may cause accidents by not knowing the roads as well as the residents of the area. Do not wait until a tragedy happens. Keep traffic on intended routes for going to Santa Cruz. Keep residents safe. Kay Maurer, Los Tatos

Please stop. University Avenue in Los Gatos is a parking lot on the weekends and everyone is on edge, including the drivers who thought the Waze route would be faster. I can't believe it is faster when there is gridlock in town. You are not helping the drivers, you are only causing more frustration.

We live downtown Los Gatos on one of the streets Waze directs traffic to cut through.
I will echo what everyone has commented here.
The town has decided to close off N Santa Cruz which won't allow anyone to get on 17S. I hope Waze is aware of this and stops directing drivers through Los Gatos.
Please spread the word anyway you can that access to 17S from N. Santa Cruz will be closed

Please stop doing this. By jamming our streets with beach traffic, Waze is taking customers from small business. Not to mention it takes 20 minutes to pull out of a driveway.

I can't even imagine if there was an emergency. Traffic is a log jam. As residents, we have one way in and one way out of town.

On a Saturday I have counted at least 50 cars in 1 1/2 hours going down our street which is a dead end and clearly states at the entrance to the street. Only to have them turn around and speed down the street. We have young kids and would not like to see kids or someone else get hurt. This is frustrating.

We had to cancel uber who could not get to us to take us to our flight in time (and drive ourselves out of our neighborhood) because of the insane beach traffic being directed through our neighborhood!

Waze has made my neighborhood a miserable place during holiday and weekend beach traffic cut throughs. Why does Waza need to provide shortcuts in residential neighborhoods? Trust me, this does not speed traffic and only serves to create even more congestion in the town, anger ad frustration of residents and safety concerns when emergency vehicles can't get through.
Waze listen to neighborhood and town complaints - you are creating massive problems not only in our community but many many others across the US.

I like Waze. But suggesting alternative route through city streets that are as bad or worse than simply staying on a highway makes no sense. Why would you want to anger loyal uses?

Los Gatos Blvd. is also a traffic nightmare. This makes it a nightmare for emergency vehicles to get thru. It would be terrible to have a heart attack or stoke victim die because some one wanted to get to the beach 5 minutes faster! Really, think about it folks.

This has become a serious safety issue as well as a disaster for local traffic.

It is a disaster in Los Gatos. Costing business money