commute

name	commute
description	Check travel time and distance between locations using Waze live traffic data. Use for commute times, journey planning, or whenever someone asks how long it takes to get somewhere.
allowed-tools	Bash(curl:*,jq:*,sed:*,python3:*)

Travel Time with Waze

Get live traffic-based travel times using the Waze routing API (no API key needed).

Two-Step Process

Step 1: Geocode addresses to coordinates

The geocoding endpoint requires lat and lon parameters (approximate location bias). Without them it returns 500. Use 0/0 if you have no idea, or the approximate region center for better results.

# Geocode an address (use row-SearchServer for EU/UK/AU, SearchServer for US)
curl -s -G "https://www.waze.com/row-SearchServer/mozi" \
  --data-urlencode "q=Oxford, UK" \
  --data-urlencode "lang=eng" \
  --data-urlencode "origin=livemap" \
  --data-urlencode "lat=51.5" \
  --data-urlencode "lon=-0.1" \
  -H "User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0" \
  -H "Referer: https://www.waze.com/" | jq '.[0] | {name, lat: .location.lat, lon: .location.lon}'

Step 2: Get route with travel time

# Use coordinates from step 1 (format: x:LONGITUDE y:LATITUDE)
curl -s -G "https://routing-livemap-row.waze.com/RoutingManager/routingRequest" \
  --data-urlencode "from=x:START_LON y:START_LAT" \
  --data-urlencode "to=x:END_LON y:END_LAT" \
  --data-urlencode "at=0" \
  --data-urlencode "returnJSON=true" \
  --data-urlencode "returnGeometries=false" \
  --data-urlencode "returnInstructions=false" \
  --data-urlencode "timeout=60000" \
  --data-urlencode "nPaths=3" \
  --data-urlencode "options=AVOID_TRAILS:t,AVOID_TOLL_ROADS:f,AVOID_FERRIES:f" \
  -H "User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0" \
  -H "Referer: https://www.waze.com/" | jq '
    # nPaths>1 returns {alternatives: [...]}, nPaths=1 returns {response: ...}
    if .alternatives then
      {routes: [.alternatives[] | {
        name: .response.routeName,
        time_minutes: ([.response.results[].crossTime] | add / 60 | . * 100 | round / 100),
        distance_km: ([.response.results[].length] | add / 1000 | . * 100 | round / 100)
      }]}
    else
      {routes: [{
        name: .response.routeName,
        time_minutes: ([.response.results[].crossTime] | add / 60 | . * 100 | round / 100),
        distance_km: ([.response.results[].length] | add / 1000 | . * 100 | round / 100)
      }]}
    end'

Regional Servers

Region	Search Server	Routing Server
EU/UK/AU	www.waze.com/row-SearchServer/mozi	routing-livemap-row.waze.com
US/Canada	www.waze.com/SearchServer/mozi	routing-livemap-am.waze.com
Israel	www.waze.com/il-SearchServer/mozi	routing-livemap-il.waze.com

Default to EU/UK servers unless the user's location suggests otherwise.

Route Options

Add to the options parameter:

• AVOID_TOLL_ROADS:t -- avoid tolls
• AVOID_FERRIES:t -- avoid ferries
• AVOID_TRAILS:t -- avoid unpaved roads

Response Parsing

Routing response structure varies by nPaths:

• nPaths=1 returns {response: {results: [...], routeName: "...", totalRouteTime: N}}
• nPaths>1 returns {alternatives: [{response: {...}}, ...]}

Each response.results[] segment has:

• crossTime -- travel time for segment (seconds, includes live traffic)
• crossTimeWithoutRealTime -- average time without live traffic
• length -- segment distance (meters)
• totalRouteTime -- pre-summed total time (seconds) on the response object

Sum all segments for total time/distance, or use totalRouteTime directly.

Important Notes

• Headers required: Always include User-Agent and Referer headers or requests will be blocked
• lat/lon required for geocoding: The search endpoint returns 500 without lat and lon query params. Pass approximate coordinates for the region (e.g., lat=51.5&lon=-0.1 for UK)
• NaN values: Response JSON may contain NaN values (currently quoted as "NaN" strings). If jq parsing fails, try piping through sed 's/: *NaN/: "NaN"/g' before jq to fix bare NaN values
• Coordinates format: Waze uses x:longitude y:latitude (note: longitude first!)
• nPaths: Set to 3 to show alternative routes with different times

Remembering Locations

When the user tells you their home, work, or other frequent locations, save them to your CLAUDE.md memory so you can look up travel times without asking each time. Example format:

## Saved Locations
- Home: Oxford, UK (lat: 51.752, lon: -1.258)
- Work: London, UK (lat: 51.507, lon: -0.128)