I'm not sure this is advancing in the right direction for the users. Optimizing traffic is probably doing more harm than good. It's one kind of premature optim

I'm not sure this is advancing in the right direction for the users. Optimizing traffic is probably doing more harm than good. It's one kind of premature optimization. I see it as a way of masking potential underlying problems like not enough investment in infrastructure, or too many cars for the capacity. Squeezing out the performance from existing infrastructure, is probably harming the longer game of having a good transporting system for the users. And that's a game that should be played by the owner of the infrastructure, not some third party which just exploit the externalities by sending heavy road traffic through calm neighborhoods every-time there is a traffic jam, often increasing the risks of further accidents and grid-locking everything, because those roads were not designed for those spikes. The worse is that more often than not, those routing apps are not even making the user win some time. But it makes the user happy because he believes he took the right direction by following the app direction. Often it's net negative for everybody.