City Throws Roadblock In Front Of Traffic Apps

LOS ANGELES, CA — You may not be able to zip around traffic on LA’s side streets with the help of a traffic app quite so easily anymore if city leaders get their way.

The Los Angeles City Council recently approved a pilot program to induce traffic apps such as Waze ro restrict routing of traffic away from small side streets. Crowd-sourced traffic apps would have to agree to the restrictions in order to enter into data-sharing agreements with the city.

"There are tremendous advantages to apps like Waze," Councilman Paul Krekorian said last year when discussing his motion that led to Tuesday's 12-0 vote to create the pilot. "They can make driving more efficient, but with every technological advance, any consequences that arise must be taken into account."

He added that the city "will have the go-ahead to start a dialogue with these tech companies to see if they will work more closely with us to reduce the impact their apps are having on small residential streets and increase the level of traffic safety in our neighborhoods."

Los Angeles had a data-sharing agreement with Waze from 2015 through 2017. It remains to be seen if apps such as Waze will go for it.

"We comply with local laws and regulations where applicable and are always happy to have a dialogue with cities," a Waze spokesperson told NBC4. "Waze is committed to working with cities, and our free data-sharing program has 950+ global partners that are working together to make transportation smart."

City News Service and Patch Staffer contributed to this report.