The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Waze is the key to civic-mindedness Posted: 24 Oct 2013 03:47 PM PDT
Malaysia is a country with people that have no manners or civic-mindedness when it comes to being on the road and driving. Behind the wheel, even the most docile grandmother will turn into a vicious, uncouth and vile language-speaking spawn of Lucifer. It's like people turn into power-crazy Hitlers when they have an accelerator pedal at the bottom of their foot and feel like they rule the world. I've experienced my share of road bullies, with some even on the verge of being violent, when I've mistakenly cut in front of their car or forget to give a signal. I have to admit, I get pretty edgy when I'm driving too. Even the slightest unintentional wrongdoing by another driver gets me screaming and throwing certain fingers around. But I think everything is about to change. And this is all because of a wonderful app available on the smartphone called Waze. Everyone who drives should be familiar with Waze. It's that app that is kind of like Google Maps but only much, much, better in every sense. It allows users to submit information about traffic situations so that other drivers who are "Wazers" can benefit from it. So, with all the information provided from Wazers everywhere, we get to see how the traffic is for any particular route that we are planning to take. Not only that, Waze will then calculate and tell you which route to take in order to avoid heavy traffic so that you get to your destination as fast as possible. But, back to my main topic of discussion – Malaysians' lack of civic-mindedness behind the wheel and on the road. And this is where I think Waze comes in. True to the spirit of Web 2.0, Waze's functionality and benefits really depend on users who feel moved enough to contribute so others may benefit. If you are already stuck in a barely crawling traffic jam in the middle of town, what does it benefit you if you told a bunch of random strangers not to follow the same route? Basically, you don't benefit at all. But people, or Wazers, really, don't seem to care because these Waze "reports" are actually a very selfless act. As a true Wazer, you don't want others to be caught in the same predicament as you; hence you help them by telling informing them. And this information is actually being appreciated by other Malaysian Wazers or drivers. Because they usually thank the person who submitted the report in the app itself. For now, a lot of this activity is just solely online. But I am almost definitely sure that it is a step in the right direction for Malaysians to being more selfless and civic-minded. Soon, I'm confident that people will start being more tolerant on the road and might even start giving way to people coming out of junctions as well (gasp!). And hopefully, this habit will start to spread among the population, not just relating to driving, but to every other aspect of social living. And this can only mean that Malaysia will be a much pleasant place to live in. Not bad for a simple GPS navigation app designed by a couple of Jews. – October 25, 2013. * This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider. |
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