Redlands, California—Esri, the global leader in location intelligence, today announced Waze live alert data will now be available in Esri’s ArcGIS Marketplace for free to members of the Waze Connected Citizens Program. The Connected Citizens Program, a two-way sharing of publicly available traffic and road condition information, offers governments a stream of data, constantly updated in real-time, whenever they need it. This enables personnel to make data-driven infrastructure decisions and improves the efficiency of incident response.
Waze, the free, crowdsourced traffic and navigation app, is now fully supported by ArcGIS Online, where its live feed of mapped traffic alerts and other information, such as accidents, congestion, and street damage, can be used in applications in minutes.
“Municipalities can now leverage near up-to-the-minute reports without having to write code or purchase additional software,” said Andrew Stauffer, manager of civic technology at Esri. “Mapped Waze data is available immediately in all ArcGIS apps, where traffic engineers and even city planners can use it to maintain and build safer, more efficient transportation systems.”
Municipal personnel like traffic engineers can start using this data to analyze where the biggest problems exist on the roads so they can create targeted solutions. For instance, by seeing exactly where the most crashes are occurring, engineers can know where they need to place more officers, replace street signs, or adjust the timing of traffic lights.
“The Waze Connected Citizens Program is all about removing any barriers to innovation,” said Adam Fried, Waze Global Partnerships manager. “We want to help our partners leverage existing infrastructure and be able to make better data-driven decisions. Now, with just a couple of clicks, a city can easily access and analyze Waze data within Esri ArcGIS and use those insights to improve roadway management and build safer roads for its citizens.”
Much of the information government organizations rely on to make decisions is becoming obsolete as communities are starting to use technology like sensors and drones to monitor the quality of roads, bridges, and utilities. The Waze Connected Citizens Program gives municipalities the power to harness crowdsourced driver data to not only improve safety and congestion but also make better-informed decisions by giving planners an edge to start building infrastructure that meets the demands of a twenty-first-century city.
Governments can sign up for the free Waze Connected Citizens Program and start working with the alert data in ArcGIS to create operational dashboards that departments can use right away.
To learn more about the newly available Waze live alert data in ArcGIS Marketplace, visit go.esri.com/waze.
