Finding My Location While Also Cursing CalTrans
I used the Waze app for the first time the other day.
Normally I’m averse to using apps for travel and navigation because I don’t like computers and systems doing things for me that I can do or figure out for myself. I don’t need or want a crutch because I’m an independent person and like to do things on my own.
I’m also a Leo and stubborn!
But I was emerging from a meeting in the confusing Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, and had a meeting at a restaurant in Studio City and needed to be efficient in my travels. The Hollywood Hills is comprised of squiggly, narrow, small and hilly streets and while I could have probably picked my way back to the main road based on how I had arrived – using only directions and not Waze, I must proudly report – I thought “I just downloaded this app and what the heck, let me give it a try.”
And, I must say, I liked it immediately. I had the sound on and it very quickly and efficiently delivered me to the main road.
It did, tho, later fail to notify me that I needed to be in the far left lane, and not the center lane, to get onto the freeway. This caused a bit of a startled and instant recalculation on my part when I reached the intersection only to realize I was a right-turn only lane.
I did not blame Waze for this error, tho, but rather the bane of my LA driving existence, CalTrans. This clueless transportation system which can’t design freeway interchanges or on and off ramps if its very existence depended on it (which is should, right!?) had put up a sign indicating both the left and center lanes went onto the freeway.
This caused my “oh crap” brief panic reaction, as well as a few choice cuss words at CalTrans. But not at Waze.
The app then directed me to get off an one particular exit, which I disagreed with so I took the next one instead and while the app did not immediately recognize my independent decision here – as I drove past the exit it kept telling me to get off at it – it did adjust a few moments later.
One I got onto Ventura Blvd., it was just a matter of finding the restaurant. I had the address and the approximate location but what I really like about Waze was that it gave me a countdown in miles to it (2 miles, 1.5 miles, .5 miles, etc.). I loved this feature because I did not have to slow down blocks early, nor did I go past it and only to remark, “say, what THAT it!?”
Overall, I enjoyed my first experience and I’m putting my stubborn Leo personality in the backseat for some – but not all – of my future driving journeys.
Cheers!
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