The City of Calgary announced data-sharing partnership with Waze

The City of Calgary announced a data-sharing partnership with Waze, the navigation platform creating community on and off the road. Designed as a free, two-way data share of publicly available traffic information, Waze for Cities Data, formerly known as the Connected Citizens Program, creates greater efficiency, deeper insights, and safer roads for citizens of The City of Calgary along with more than 1,600 other partners around the world.

By incorporating new innovative tools like Waze, Calgary’s Traffic Management Centre (TMC) can improve traffic flow by gathering road information in real-time and inform citizens about traffic impacts, construction and lane closures quickly. Waze for Cities Data will give Calgary’s TMC an unprecedented look at real-time road activity, the ability to harness real-time driver insights to improve congestion and make better-informed planning decisions.

Waze will help provide The City with real-time, anonymous, user-generated incident and traffic information directly from the source: Calgary drivers and passengers themselves. In exchange, The City of Calgary will provide real-time government-reported construction, crash, and road closure data to Waze to return one of the most succinct, thorough overviews of current road conditions today.

“As a smart city, we’re always looking for opportunities to improve the services we’re delivering to Calgarians by connecting technology and data,” said Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi. “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.”

The Waze map evolves in real time with every driver and data point it receives, promoting safer roads and sharing more knowledge with drivers about potential delays to their commutes. Waze for Cities Data provides local citizens a greater ability to circumvent road closures and traffic jams within the app. The City of Calgary can further provide Calgary Waze users with advanced notice of major traffic events that will affect their daily routes. During emergency situations, such as major weather events, users can check the app for the latest details around road closures to ensure safe travel during potentially hazardous conditions.

“Canadian cities are looking for ways to use data to improve the vital transportation services they provide,” said 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.”