Waze - The Best Speed Trap IPhone Application

As a Las Vegas traffic ticket lawyer I have dealt with hundreds of traffic tickets. First of all, you should not speed. Nevertheless, in my opinion, the vast majority of speed traps are only designed for raising revenue and not public safety.

The main reasons that I say this are as follows:

Speed Traps Are Unfair - In many rural areas, within a few feet, the posted speed limit changes from 45 to 25 MPH within a few feet. This means that you will be hard-pressed to slow down quick enough to reach the posted speed limit.

Speed Traps Serve No deterrence - Speed traps, by their very nature, are hidden. Police are either hiding behind some bush or sign. So, it makes common sense that speed traps don't stop someone from speeding. After all, what deterrence is there when a motorist does not see a police officer and/or does not now that speed traps are present?

Speed Traps are Just for the Revenue - Speeding tickets are big business for many cities and counties. This is most evident in Rural Nevada. For example, in Goldfield Nevada if you get a speeding ticket you will likely be fined $600. (You will be fined this even if you are going only five over the speed limit).

These above are generalities as many tickets are warranted. Even so, the Waze iPhone application will help you avoid unfair speed traps.

So, here is my review of Waze:

First of all, Waze is not specifically a speed trap locator as it is more of a multi-purpose application. According to the app designers:

“Waze is a fun, community, based mapping, traffic & navigation app, 50 million strong. Join forces with other drivers nearby to outsmart traffic, save time & gas money, and approve everyone’s daily commute.”

This application also allows for:

“Community contributed road alerts including accidents, hazards, police traps”.

Here, are the pros and cons of Waze:

PROS

• Wide-Spread Use-As of the writing of this article there have been 5,301 reviews of this app and according to Tech Crunch the Waze user base is over 20,000,000. (As of July 2012.) This means, because of the vast amount of users, the information you are getting is likely to be accurate and up to date.
• Free-Waze is free as advertising supports this application.
• Highly Rated- Out of 5,031 reviews the app is rated nearly five stars. Also, there are very few one star rating for this apps. The vast majority of ratings for this application are either four of five stars.

CONS

• Battery Drainer- This apps work in real time as you are constantly sending your info to the maker of this application. This will result in your battery being drained quickly. So, if you are going to use this app for a long period of time, you need to hook you iPhone up to your USB battery charger. Ad Driven- The ads on Waze can be quite annoying. And as of now there is no way around this. So, it would be nice if they could provide a version that is not advertised supported. Personally, I would be willing to pay for a great product that is not advertisement supported and looking at the reviews many other users of the Waze app would also.
• Speed Traps are Only User Contributed- This means that you are at the mercy of your fellow users of the Waze app. So, you could be surprised if you solely rely on this to identify a speed trap.

CONCLUSION

Overall, this is one of the best, if not the absolute best, applications of its kind. You do need to remember that you still need to drive carefully as speed trap locations are user contributed.  As long as you remember this you should be fine, and as it is free, you have nothing to lose to try it out.

Citations:

• Tech Crunch Article
• Link to Waze Application

By Jon Martin

Author: Jon Martin is Nevada licensed lawyer.  As always, if you have any specific legal question you need to see a local lawyer or if you are in Las Vegas, click here.