INDUSTRY

transportation

Category

mapping and directions services

product Profiled

Waze app

H-Score

48

ranked 17th of 18 within the transportation industry

ranked 38th of 76 overall

product description

Waze is a smartphone app that provides real-time driving directions, featuring live updates crowdsourced from its users.

product use

A user opens the Waze app on a smartphone and is prompted to type in (or search) for a location. Waze provides information about the location (if it is a business address) and offers the user a selection of driving routes. The user selects a route and is then given visual and aural turn-by-turn directions. The Waze map shows traffic slowdowns, construction, accidents and other features such as speed traps which have been reported by other users. Users can earn status points by reporting these events and features and can also earn points simply by driving with the app open.(1)

Waze can also be operated through an automobile’s Apple CarPlay or Android Auto infotainment system.

who’s affected

Waze is available to all smartphone users throughout the US. Eighty-five (85) percent of US residents own smartphones, with ownership higher among younger and more affluent populations.(2) Waze has over 150 million worldwide monthly users.(3)

influence on health-related behaviors

EATING

slight negative influence

Waze has a pre-loaded search for nearby food that does not appear to bias toward healthy food. Searching explicitly for “healthy food” yields a list of restaurants with the name “Healthy” in their title, as opposed to nearby restaurants or grocery stories that offer healthy food. 

One of Waze’s pre-loaded search categories are “Grocery Stores.” Shopping at grocery stores facilitates the preparation of home-cooked meals, which, in general, have been shown to be healthier than meals eaten out or ordered from restaurants.(4-8)

Another Waze option for searching for a location is “Drive-Thru.” Drive-thru restaurants are typically fast food restaurants, which are often unhealthy – researchers have found 70% of meals served at fast food restaurants to be of poor nutritional quality.(9)

PHYSICAL ACTVITY

slight negative influence

Waze only offers driving directions – it does not offer directions for walking, bicycling, public transit or any mode that is more active than driving. As such, it effectively discourages physical activity by promoting greater use of automobile transportation. In addition, Waze encourages move driving by awarding status points based on miles driven.

In Building H consumer research, strong majorities of Americans say that mapping and directions apps (including but not specific to Waze) do not lead to increases (74%) or decreases (84%) in their use of any transportation modes. However, 15% do report increased automobile use, versus only 5% who report decreased auto use.(10) The impact on usage of other transportation modes -- biking, walking, scooters and public transit -- was reported as neutral.

neutral influence

Waze has no obvious direct effects on sleeping, although to the extent that it influences physical activity and time spent outdoors, it could indirectly influence sleep as both of those behaviors are positively correlated with better sleep.

Engaging Socially

slight positive influence

To the extent that Waze facilitates people leaving their homes by making it easier to get to places, it could lead to casual social interactions.

Waze prompts the user to “Drive to friends and family,” as the third prompt (after “Home” and “Work,” in its main search experience, providing a gentle nudge to seek out contact.

Waze is fundamentally built around crowdsourcing and incentivizes individual users to contribute to a broader community of drivers by reporting incidents and other road features. Users are able to thank one another directly for these reports. Prolific users receive community recognition through leaderboards. Users are also encouraged to display their moods through their choice of avatars.

Getting Outdoors

neutral to slight positive influence

One could argue that mapping services by their very nature facilitate the action of leaving one’s home and going outside (with the significant exception of door-to-door car trips from one indoor experience to another). Given that Waze only provides driving directions, it would facilitate getting outdoors less than mapping services that offer directions for walking, biking and public transportation.

Waze does offer “outdoor parks” as one of its pre-loaded search categories.

Return to 2024 Building H Index

1. How to earn points on Waze | Checking Waze bonus points. My GPS Tools website, accessed November 30, 2023.

2. Mobile Fact Sheet. Pew Research Center website. April 7, 2021.

3. Jon Porter. Google is bringing together its Waze and Maps teams as it pushes to reduce overlap. The Verge. December 8, 2022.

4. Julia Wolfson and Sara Bleich. Is Cooking at Home Associated with Better Diet Quality or Weight-Loss Intention? Public Health Nutrition. Volume 18, Supplement 8 (June 2015), pp. 1397-1406.

5. Junxiu Liu et al. Quality of Meals Consumed by US Adults at Full-Service and Fast-Food Restaurants, 2003–2016: Persistent Low Quality and Widening Disparities. The Journal of Nutrition. Volume 150, Issue 4 (April 2020), pp. 873–883.

6. R. An. Fast-food and full-service restaurant consumption and daily energy and nutrient intakes in US adults. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Volume 70 (2016), pp. 97–103.

7. Sharon Kirkpatrick et al. Fast-food menu offerings vary in dietary quality, but are consistently poor. Public Health Nutrition. Volume 17, Issue 4 (January 2013), pp. 924–931.

8. Lisa Powell and Binh Nguyen. Fast-food and full-service restaurant consumption among children and adolescents: effect on energy, beverage, and nutrient intake. JAMA Pediatrics. Volume 167, Issue 1 (January 2013), pp. 14–20.

9. Liu et al. (2020)

10. Steve Downs. A Survey of Modern Life: Mobility. Building H on Medium. January 12, 2022.