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Waze and DUI Checkpoints


Razors Edge

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While I don't use Waze often, I gotta say the possibility that they are truly broadcasting where DUI checkpoints are located - real time - is about as DISGUSTING a business model as possible.  I can see using traffic speed to route people around those checkpoints if quicker routes are determined, but to be explicit or open about them being DUI checkpoints is reprehensible.

People who actually enter the DUI checkpoint into the app are even lower than low.  Disgusting, reprehensible, and inexcusable.

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1 minute ago, TrentonMakes said:

What about people who flash their high beams to let an opposing driver they're about to encounter an officer running radar?

Where do you draw the line?

Not there!  Screw the MAN!

But fair enough.  Cops will pull you over for the headlight flash thing, so perhaps they should also have access to the Waze data so they can drop by the folks who flag DUI spots and have a "discussion". Acceptance of of drunk driving is sickening. Acceptance of speeding is a lot grayer -  ie speed traps vs reckless driving.

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2 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

What is even more disgusting is New York State is trying to stop people from using Waze. That's a freedom of speech violation in my book.

I hadn't heard about this (obviously I don't live there).  What would be the basis for this?

We're involved in a project where residents on a couple quiet streets report that Waze is sending drivers down their streets - which aren't built for this type of traffic - in the quest for the lowest travel time, avoiding one big problem intersection.  I don't know if it's true but it's interesting.  More cans of worms are opened every day.

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3 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

That's a freedom of speech violation in my book.

Freedom of speech is certainly not an absolute freedom.  However, I think the states would simply be wiser working to link crimes committed to use of the app.  If you find a person avoided a checkpoint due to the app and then later injures someone, make Google, Waze, the poster of the checkpoint, and the drunk ALL on the hook for the crime.  A hundred million dollar wrongful death suit or two would temper some folks desire to aid and abet.

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I don’t see a DUI Checkpoint option on Waze. So either they removed it, or people were customizing another road hazard or police presence indicator to show it was a DUI Checkpoint. 

Police departments sometimes publish their Checkpoint locations in the newspaper. They still catch a lot of over the limit drivers.

A smart police force would post their own Waze notifications, even if there wasn’t a DUI Checkpoint or speed trap actually in place.

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Flashing headlights for a radar trap causes the offenders to slow down.  Which is pretty much the (theoretical) point.

Broadcasting DUI Checkpoints keeps drunk drivers on the road, just a different road.

Free speech doesn't apply when that speech causes harm.

Te whole point of Waze also encourages cell phone use - and not just talking - while behind the wheel.  I really hope it gets shut down before more people die.

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2 minutes ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

Waze discourages use by the driver. You have to indicate that you are a passenger in order to use it if the car is moving.

Oh, OK, glad to know everyone is following instructions and being careful............. And Waze is well aware of what's going on.

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1 hour ago, TrentonMakes said:

I hadn't heard about this (obviously I don't live there).  What would be the basis for this?

We're involved in a project where residents on a couple quiet streets report that Waze is sending drivers down their streets - which aren't built for this type of traffic - in the quest for the lowest travel time, avoiding one big problem intersection.  I don't know if it's true but it's interesting.  More cans of worms are opened every day.

Google Maps does that too, and I think Waze is based on that.  And usually I see a car in front of me making the same crazy turns through residential streets when I get routed that way with Google Maps.

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I always just skip the check points... motorcycle coast for a long time with the engine off and the lights out. :)
Before they know it I am rolling past them and on my way. 

Then again I typically get flagged through because it is not easy to drink and ride on two wheels. 

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5 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

I’ve heard of the DUI checkpoints but never seen one. Do they slow the flow of traffic much? I would avoid one if I knew where it was just because I don’t want to waste my time.

I've stopped for 10 minutes or so while my lane crept forward through the check.  That was at a gas station closed for the night when I was on my way home for work.  Everyone is routed into 3 or 4 lanes in the station driveway.  It has to be everyone so the police are legal as anything else opens the door to a claim of profiling.

I thanked them.

I watched them drag a young woman kicking and screaming and biting into the back of a cruiser.  I think she wasn't in favor of checkpoints and attempted to have a conversation with the police.  I've heard dirtier mouths but that was from sailors.

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3 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

I’ve heard of the DUI checkpoints but never seen one. Do they slow the flow of traffic much? I would avoid one if I knew where it was just because I don’t want to waste my time.

Yes. It has been years since I got caught in one and it was pretty slow, but not horribibble. The check itself is weird- they shine a flashlight thingy on your breath and send you on your way if you pass. 

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When I worked someone at work would always cut the notice from the newspaper telling when and where the checkpoints were going to be. They also have permenant signs advising that the road is a targeted checkpoint. They really don’t try to be sneaky about it. They always make a boatload of arrests anyway.

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2 hours ago, Longjohn said:

I’ve heard of the DUI checkpoints but never seen one. Do they slow the flow of traffic much? I would avoid one if I knew where it was just because I don’t want to waste my time.

I got stuck in one in Annapolis where the police despicably picked the main road leading North out of the Government Buildings-area of Annapolis and decided to close it, but in a hard-to-see way, hoping to catch drunks. They caught almost everyone because most people on the road knew of no other way to get to the expressway.  I made a left turn into the stretch of road that was closed, not being able to read the road closed sign until I had already turned.

I wanted to jump all over the police officer and ask why they did such a stupid thing that not only was difficult to see but surely sent some people down potentially unsafe side streets trying to find a way around the blocked area.  Of course, berating a police officer when he has a ticket book in his hand would have been beyond stupid.  So I simply said I saw there was a through lane and thought the other lane was simply blocked.  He didn't check me for alcohol, he just told me to drive on through.

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The first time I used Waze was on the road trip to Disney with my son and two little granddaughters. My son wanted to make it interesting for the girls so he had Waze give us directions using the voice “boy band”.  Whenever they gave directions the girls repeated them in their boy band voice and then they both giggled. They had us laughing so hard we left that voice on the whole way to Disney. 

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Never heard of  Waze until this thread.

Also, seems like DUI checkpoints are a common thing in some of your locations.  I don't think they do them more than a couple times per year here in Southern AZ.  I've only ever passed through on once...and that was when they were setting it up, so wasn't stopped.  

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I was thinking that I have never seen a DUI checkpoint - then I was thinking that I might remember that they were deemed illegal in Michigan - then I checked the interweb because it's always right.

To put it simply: DUI checkpoints are not legal in Michigan. In fact, Michigan is one of 10 states that have ruled against sobriety checkpoints, saying that they violate their own state constitutions.

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20 years or so ago, when returning from Lollapaloozo - hosted just over the VA/WV border - at a little past midnight in a very small town with a single road running through it, the VA police (probably Loudoun County, but maybe Virginia state) set up a DUI checkpoint.  Getting through that took quite a while, and really could only have been placed there to bust concert goers returning to the DC suburbs.  I never drink and drive, so I was good, but it still was a PITA.  Hopefully they nabbed a lot folks.

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I've been in a car in which the driver was using Waze.  On 95, off 95, this side street onto that side street, back on 95.... We will never know if it was really faster, I think.

I saw a sobriety checkpoint once, at the toll plaza for the Key Bridge south of Baltimore.  It did appear that they had some cars stopped, but we were just waved through.  Maybe they had a certain number of officers and didn't want any backups, so they funneled cars in when there was an officer available.  (IIRC I'd had two drinks at the wedding we'd just left - I weighed at least 280 back then and I'm sure I was clean by that hour, but still a little startling)

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1 minute ago, Longjohn said:

It is an interactive GPS app that gives you directions to where you want to go but it allows other users to report hazards ahead or police reported ahead.

Used primarily for fastest route to your destination based on other drivers feedback.

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