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Snow can turn your world into a winter wonderland, but turn driving into a nightmare. When the weather outside is delightful and frightful, you want to avoid roads that are covered by snow or ice. Main roads may get plowed quickly after a snowfall, but secondary streets often take longer to be cleared.
How can you know when your roads are plowed so you can head out on your trip? With a new feature in the Waze app, you can get alerts for unplowed roads and treacherous wintry conditions. You can also let others know about snow and ice on the roads.
Waze, the crowd-sourced navigation app owned by Google, has become popular for alerting drivers to traffic snarls, construction delays, roadblocks, disabled vehicles, and other hazardous driving situations.
Waze has launched a new feature in its app called Unplowed Roads that alerts drivers to unplowed roads on their route, helping them avoid slippery road conditions.
The new Unplowed Roads feature is available in all 185 countries covered by Waze.
This feature was developed by Waze at the suggestion of, and in collaboration with, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). In a press release, VDOT explained:
With the winter season approaching, VDOT suggested that Waze create the option to better highlight snow on the road within the app. The feature will offer the Waze community of over 130 million monthly users the opportunity to be better prepared for hazardous winter weather conditions…Many use crowdsourcing in their daily lives. We wanted to explore this method of information gathering to help improve safety and better assess the conditions of our roads during winter weather. We value our partnership with Waze, and look forward to monitoring the real-time reports on road conditions and determining how best to incorporate the data into our future operations.“
This tweet from Waze announced the new feature:
Waze Alerts now include unplowed road alerts ❄️, so you know when to watch out for snowy roads and help your fellow Wazers do the same. Don’t forget to check your route before you head out. pic.twitter.com/SPZNNGDnOH
— waze (@waze) December 13, 2019
This free app has helped countless drivers find the optimal route from Point A to Point B over the years. Now with Unplowed Roads on Waze, drivers can check winter road conditions on their route before heading out, avoiding roads that are covered with snow or ice.
Drivers can also report unplowed roads to help keep others safe on their journeys.
How to Report Wintry Conditions in Waze
If you come upon snow, ice, and/or unplowed roads in your travels, you can help keep other drivers safe by reporting winter road conditions in the Waze app. To report unplowed roads and other winter hazards, tap the Report icon,
then:
Hazards -> Weather -> Unplowed road
You can fill in other helpful information, such as a description, and add a photo of the weather conditions. When you’re finished, tap Send to share your report.
Availability
The Waze app is free for iPhone and Android and is available in over 185 countries:
Your Thoughts
Do you live in an area with snowy weather? Will you use Unplowed Roads in the Waze app to help avoid roads with snow and ice? What other updates would you like to see in the Waze app?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
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*Snowy Road photo (edited) courtesy of Steven Feather via Flickr and Creative Commons
Hi Carolyn, I love this! I will be downloading Waze again, I haven’t used it in a few years as I’m used to Google maps but this will come in very handy soon. Thanks for sharing about it.
I had been impressed with Google’s ability to let me know about fallen objects on the road or accidents or speed traps ahead. I haven’t heard of Google being able to let us know about unplowed roads though!
Hi Carolyn
My son Guy downloaded this app for me years ago when it was still owned by the Israeli company that developed it. I’ve even used it in Israel. It is great. Except that sometimes the screen goes to “are you driving or riding” or some other clever idea just when I need it most.
All the best.
Hi Lucille, Very cool that you’ve been a fan of Waze since its earliest days. You probably wouldn’t need this new feature much in Israel, but it could come in handy if you visit colder climates.
Hi Lisa, Yes, it can be difficult to know whether roads have been plowed, especially secondary streets that may not be plowed for a while after the snow has stopped falling.
This information comes from Waze users, so I hope Google introduces this feature for Google Maps and that the information is shared between the two apps.
Hi Carolyn,
This app sounds great! I live in Canada so we have plenty of snow during the winter and I come across unplowed roads every year. I will make sure to download this app to avoid this situation in the future.
Thanks
Hi William, Yes, this new feature of Waze is especially handy in colder, snowy climates such as yours in Canada. You can check Waze before you head out to learn whether your local roads have been plowed. Safe travels!
Hi. This is something interesting. However I have noticed that waze tend to not know the back shortcut roads that would divert me away from a massive block of traffic, which is very annoying when I am driving in an area I don’t know very well.
Hi Antonio, That’s surprising Waze doesn’t divert you to side roads when the main roads are snarled in traffic. I have found the opposite, that sometimes Waze diverts me to side roads even when there isn’t a traffic jam on the main roads.
I hope Waze improves for you, Antonio. If not, there are other navigation apps that may work better for you.