Connected Citizens Program hits milestone in efforts to improve mobility

Waze, the real-time crowdsourced traffic and navigation app, has announced that its Connected Citizens Program has reached 600 partners globally.

Launched in October 2014 with 10 city partners, the programme has expanded to include state and country government agencies, non-profit organisations and first responders.

As a free, two-way data exchange, the Connected Citizens Program enables partners to access real-time driver insights to improve congestion and make better-informed planning decisions.

During 2017, the City of New Orleans, Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Bridges and Tunnels (New York), Philips Arena (Atlanta), Prefeitura de Sao Paulo (Brazil), The Alan Turing Institute (United Kingdom) and Bank Negara de Malaysia (Malaysia) all signed up to be partners.

“Cities everywhere are undergoing a massive transportation revolution and Waze is thrilled to be at the forefront with the Connected Citizens Program,” said Thais Blumenthal de Moraes, Global Connected Citizens Program Lead. “We’re excited to empower our new partners City of New Orleans, MTA Bridges and Tunnels, and Philips Arena with powerful data insights that will help them make informed planning decisions and improve existing infrastructure.”

The Waze Connected Citizens Program has aided Boston in reducing congestion by 18 per cent in the busy Seaport District and Ghent, and Belgium was able to implement an ambitious traffic plan that reduced accidents by 30 per cent and increased public transportation use by 15 per cent.

Theo Damoulas, Turing Fellow and Assistant Professor of Data Science at the University of Warwick, said: “At The Alan Turing Institute we’re working with Waze and the Greater London Authority on a project to better estimate and forecast air pollution in the capital. Traffic data will enable us to build a more accurate picture of key areas and levels of pollution. Our ambition is that this initiative, which is taking place as part of our data-centric engineering programme, will significantly support efforts to understand and improve air quality in the capital.”

By participating in the Connected Citizens Program, hundreds of partners have been able to leverage mobile technology and crowdsourced traffic data to identify what is happening on their roads whilst actively managing congestion in their cities and improving driving conditions for everyone.