CityLab Daily: The True Price of Transportation Anarchy

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Route of the problem: Everyone loves a good shortcut. That much is clear a decade after the launch of Waze, the navigation app that helps drivers “outsmart” traffic jams with their phones. Along with other GPS routing apps, these optimized directions have become an indispensable service for millions of people seeking to avoid clogged roads. But giving each driver what they want may not be what’s best for the broader transportation system—or even, ultimately, for individual drivers. Now that apps find better routes with more accuracy, they’re creating a tension between road systems and users that transportation engineers call the “price of anarchy.”