Solo Drivers Say They Benefit From App Communities

Eric Jaffe introduced us a year ago to Waze, a route-planning app for drivers that leverages the experiences of other people on the road to help you optimize yours. The idea, as Jaffe wrote, implies a kind of "crowdsourced commute." And mobile social apps like it – connecting people by shared traffic routes, as opposed to shared interests, or shared college alma maters – have given way to what might be called the "networked commuter."

These people are, crucially, connected not just to information, but to each other. And with cars, this represents a basic shift in what it means to drive somewhere alone. A new study [PDF] released Monday by the New Cities Foundation, based in part on data provided by Waze from drivers in the San Jose area, suggests that networked commuters have a more positive experience of their slog around town than drivers who go it alone (or go it with non-networked apps like Google Maps).