Posted on February 1, 2018 at 4:50 pm by Meghan Revolinsky
By: Nikki Nagaya
The City of Menlo Park announced a data-sharing partnership with Waze, the free, real-time crowdsourced traffic and navigation app powered by the world’s largest community of drivers. Designed as a free, two-way data share of publicly available traffic information, the Connected Citizens Program (CCP) promotes greater efficiency, deeper insights and safer roads for the citizens of Menlo Park along with nearly 500 other partners around the world.
Joining the Connected Citizens program empowers partners to harness real-time driver insights, and gives City staff access to real-time road activity to improve congestion and make better-informed planning decisions. Waze provides partners with real-time, anonymous, Waze-generated incident and slow-down information directly from the source: drivers themselves. In exchange, Menlo Park provides real-time government-reported roadway configuration changes, construction, crash and road closure data to Waze to provide a clear, real-time snapshot of current road conditions. Through joining the Connected Citizens program, the City worked with Wazers to report the recent installation of new turn restrictions near the Willow Road/US 101 interchange to better guide drivers through the area.
“We’re very excited to welcome the City of Menlo Park as our latest data-sharing partner in the CCP,” said Thais Blumenthal de Moraes, Global Business Development Lead, Connected Citizens Program. “Waze help keep drivers and government partners informed about their local road conditions by leveraging real-time insights. We’re thrilled to see that the City of Menlo Park has already benefited from use of this data, and are looking forward to furthering our partnership.”
The Waze map evolves with every driver and data point it receives, promoting safer roads and sharing more knowledge with Wazers about potential delays to their commutes. The Connected Citizens program yields even more data, giving local citizens a greater ability to circumvent road closures and construction zones within the app. Menlo Park can also provide Wazers with advanced notice of major traffic events such as parades and dignitary visits that will affect their daily routes.
To find out more about Connected Citizens visit http://waze.com/ccp. To download the free Waze app for iOS or Android, visit http://www.waze.com/get.
About Waze
Waze is the social navigation pioneer, leveraging mobile technology and a passionate global community to redefine expectations of today’s maps. Waze is home to the world’s largest network of drivers who work together daily to outsmart traffic and save time and money. The app consistently recommends the fastest routes based on real-time driving and data from millions of users. From traffic reroutes to low gas price alerts and relevant offers from favorite brands, Waze is one of the most comprehensive driving companions in the marketplace.
