Traffic dodging apps prompt cities to game the algorithms
By Elizabeth Weise, USA Today
Call it planners versus algorithms.
Smartphone apps like Waze, a godsend for some road warriors because they shave minutes and even hours off their commutes with their creative detours off main highways, are causing headaches for city planners.
Using crosswalks, wider sidewalks and traffic lights, these transportation engineers aim to make neighborhood traffic slow, safe, and friendly for pedestrians — not send frustrated commuters barreling down side roads.
But the GPS-enabled computer programs often don’t know that, or care. Their creators, such as Waze (owned by Google), are sympathetic, to a degree. They may give cities tips on how to effectively game the program so a neighborhood detour doesn’t seem that appealing. But at the end of the day, the purpose of the bots is to make use of all available road space, main thoroughfare or country lane.
The upshot is mounting frustration from cities, which are trying to thwart computer systems that are savvier than ever.
Use this issue as a metaphor for business and taxes. Tax law is written to regulate the flow of capital and provide necessary revenue for the government to operate. There are myriad pathways that are allowed and even encouraged for normal traffic flows. However, there are some people who navigate these pathways to avoid “traffic” by using other pathways that weren’t envisioned, leaving chaos and confusion behind them.
I can certainly imagine the people who write tax and business law envisioning alternate pathways for money while they write law, knowing that these alternate pathways will be available to certain people.
Just a thought.
‘Certain’ people should be aware that all these ‘alternates’ ultimately lead to the same place and good luck when they get there…’they’ are surely in for a surprise!