Massimo has applied (after a false start on my part) the final portion of the app-specific routing patch. There are no API changes (unless you're directly looking at rewrite.params, in which case ask about the new interface), but the new code is thread-safe and should be good to go.
Have a look at the web2py book or at the comments in routes.example.py for general information on how to use the feature. (This is not the next-gen URL-rewrite code, which is still a good intention merely. It's just the app-specific version of the existing URL-rewrite logic.)