The Cobb County Department of Transportation has announced a data-sharing partnership with Waze (www.waze.com), 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 Waze Connected Citizens Program promotes greater efficiency, deeper insights and safer roads for citizens of Cobb County, along with more than 100 other partners around the world.
Two-way data sharing with Waze allows the County to provide an additional avenue to make the public aware of ongoing construction, traffic incidents and event-related lane closures. With growth occurring in many regions of Cobb, including the Kennesaw State University area and the Cumberland Community Improvement District—with the addition of SunTrust Park and The Battery—the Waze app combines the DOT’s traffic information with citizen-generated reports to offer a more comprehensive look at conditions for commuters.
The County also will collect anonymous, real-time data from Waze to assist in the identification of traffic trends that will be beneficial in transportation planning as Cobb continues to progress as a metro Atlanta hub for business, education and entertainment.
“Joining the Connected Citizens Program was a logical step to take to ensure that we are providing our citizens with the best available tools to make decisions about their daily travel on our roads,” said Jim Wilgus, director for the Cobb County Department of Transportation. “Our work is about helping people get around as safely and efficiently as possible. That means construction, certainly, but it also means making the most of technology. We are excited about how working with Waze will help us meet that goal.”
The Waze Connected Citizens Program gives county leaders an unprecedented look at road activity, empowering partners to harness real-time driver insights to improve congestion and make better informed planning decisions. Waze provides partners with realtime, anonymous, Waze-generated incident and slowdown information directly from drivers, and in return the
DOT provides real-time construction, crash and road closure data to Waze. The exchange creates a map that evolves with every driver and data point it receives and promotes safer roads by equipping Wazers with the knowledge to make smart commute choices to avoid delays due to daily construction or major traffic eventscaused by game days or dignitary visits.
“Through the Waze Connected Citizens Program, Cobb County will contribute critical data to the Waze app which is key for hyperlocal citizen support,” said Adam Fried, New Business Development Manager at Waze. “No one knows more about what is happening on the roads than Wazers, and Cobb County will be able to use these anonymous insights to further promote safer roads. In exchange, Cobb County is providing critical road closure and incident data to Waze, helping Wazers better circumvent major traffic events and real-time traffic blocks.”
To find out more about Connected Citizens, visit waze.com/ccp. To download the free Waze app for iOS or Android, visit www.waze.com/get.
