Today, the City of Calgary announced a no-cost data-sharing partnership with the GPS navigation software app and Google subsidiary Waze as part of the Waze for Cities Data program.
Designed in 2014 as a free, two-way data share program of publicly available traffic information, Waze for Cities Data, formerly known as the Connected Citizens Program, is meant to help create deeper traffic insights and safer roads.
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Waze integrates city data into Google Cloud
As part of the partnership, Waze will help Calagary obtain real-time, anonymous, user-generated incident and traffic information directly from Calgary drivers and passengers themselves, and the city will provide real-time government-reported construction, crash, and road closure data to Waze to return thorough overviews of real-time road conditions.
“As a smart city, we’re always looking for opportunities to improve the services we’re delivering to Calgarians by connecting technology and data,” noted Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, in a press release. “This exciting, no-cost partnership with Waze will provide Calgarians with real-time information, about traffic and road conditions, reducing commute times and making our roads even safer.”
A news release from the City of Calgary says its Traffic Management Centre will be able to improve traffic flow by gathering road information in real-time and inform citizens about traffic impacts, construction and lane closures quickly.
It will allow the city to provide Calgary Waze users with advanced notice of major traffic events that will affect their daily routes. The City also says users will be able to check the app for the latest details around road closures to ensure safe travel during emergency situations, such as major weather events.
“Canadian cities are looking for ways to use data to improve the vital transportation services they provide,” noted Mike Wilson, Head of Canada, Waze. “We’re pleased to partner with The City of Calgary as part of the Waze for Cities Data program, and help Calgarians understand what’s happening on the roads so their drives are as worry-free as possible.”
Alongside the City of Calgary, there are over 1,600 other partners around the world participating in this program including the City of Toronto, the City of Winnipeg (which replaced its traffic helicopter with Waze for City Data), City of Montreal, 407 ETR, and many other regions, cities, townships, counties, and ministries across Canada.
It was in October 2019 when Waze first started integrating its city data with Google Cloud to allow for cities to more easily access, organize, store, interpret, and share their transportation data.