With five of the 20 most congested U.S. roads right here in Chicago, according to the latest Urban Mobility Scorecard performed by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, guests may need help finding the fastest routes to your event, too. Waze, a real-time GPS navigation app, does just that with help from locals: More than 265,000 Chicago-area users (aka Wazers) driving 55 million miles report 588,000 traffic alerts each month to the benefit of fellow commuters.
It’s the go-to map app for sporting events, concerts and high-profile affairs, and “really does pinpoint where the traffic, congestion and gridlock is” to avoid those routes, says spokesperson Laura Finkelstein. Celebrity voiceovers— such as Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator!—make it fun, and the app even helps create buzz, as Wazers can chat with each other and planners can advertise events on the site.
