Esri has announced a new partnership with Waze – a free, crowdsourced traffic and navigation app that makes it easier for governments to design intelligent transportation systems for their communities.
Global smart-mapping leader Esri today announced a new partnership with Waze – a free, crowdsourced traffic and navigation app that makes it easier for governments of every size, anywhere in the world to build intelligent transportation systems for their communities.
Governments already using Esri's ArcGIS platform can quickly and easily exchange data through the Waze Connected Citizens Program – creating a two-way data share of publicly available traffic information.
Waze has set the gold standard on how to share and harness the power of anonymous, aggregated data to promote greater transportation efficiency, provide deeper insight into travel conditions and create safer roads.
Esri is the industry-leader in geospatial analytics, empowering more than 350,000 organisations to make smarter, location-based decisions. Starting today, governments that have not already subscribed to Esri technology or joined the Waze Connected Citizens Program can sign up online to start sharing road closure alerts and other information with citizens right away.
"Councils can now leverage real-time reports without having to invest in sensor networks or an Internet of Things infrastructure," said Terry Bills, global smart transport specialist at Esri. “Waze allows local governments to share open data with a purpose – in an application already popular with constituents, commuters and tourists."
The simplicity and structure of the data feeds allow local governments to merge information into existing enterprise systems, such as emergency dispatch and street maintenance systems, to make their communities smarter and safer.
Importantly, the partnership also enables communities to extend the reach of the data they map and manage by sharing it with Waze, which has more than 65 million monthly active users worldwide.
This free, public-private partnership allows greater government transparency and collaboration with citizens to help people better navigate their streets and highways.
"The Waze Connected Citizens Program empowers municipalities to harness real-time driver insight to improve congestion and make better informed planning decisions," said Paige Fitzgerald, head of new business development (data acquisition) for Waze.
With 100 partners worldwide, Waze provides each partner with the same set of free, data-driven tools and resources to foster collaboration and communication between all partners.
"Working with Esri allows Waze to further scale the program and creates additional opportunities for our partners to collaborate, helping each other incorporate the power of crowdsourced data into their traffic management strategies."
Waze pioneered data standards for road closure and incident reporting, which are embedded within customised data feeds provided to each partner. The application provides partners with real-time, anonymous, Waze-generated incident and slowdown information directly from the source: drivers themselves.
In exchange, partners provide real-time, government-reported construction, crash and road closure data to Waze, creating one of the most thorough records of current road conditions currently available.
Learn more about the partnership via Esri, or view the Waze Connected Citizens Program.