What It Is: Waze is a navigation app that can alert you to traffic accidents, police activity, road construction, etc. and reroute you on the fly. It’s particularly useful in large cities where accidents can happen at a moment’s notice and add upwards of an hour to your drive time. Why did we include this in our “money saving apps”? Because time is money, and Waze can definitely save you time (and gas) which over time adds up.
Why We Like It: As far as navigation apps go, Waze tends to be better at rerouting on the fly. We also like features like Waze’s traffic jam estimations and road closure information. We have heard that Waze can get a little crazy with the reroutes sometimes, sending you off-road… but you can control for how Waze decides to route you on toll roads, freeways, and dirt roads in the Navigation options. Take the time to customize your settings, trust us – you’ll have a better shortcut experience.
More cool tricks for Waze – it’s a social app, which means it can get a little overwhelming if little icons keep popping up every time someone reports an incident (which in LA, is like every minute). But no worries, you can customize what appears on your map. Go to Display Settings > Show On Map and uncheck anything you don’t care about.
And here’s an awesome little feature you might not know about…Waze can also give you gas station pricing information! Go to Settings > Gas Stations & Prices, and choose how Waze shows you nearby gas stations. It can show you the cheapest gas near to where you are, which saves you money!
Waze also has a “Send ETA” function we like. This is particularly good if you’re meeting up with people at the airport or a restaurant in the city and run into traffic. If your friends have Waze installed, you can just tap the “Send ETA” button and it will share your location info and estimated arrival time so folks know when to expect you. This way you don’t need to try and text or call while driving, which isn’t safe.
Ready to save time and gas in the city? Check out the Waze app today.
