The world we live in is becoming more connected every single day, and this connection is creating massive amounts of data from the products we use and the infrastructure that supplies services to its citizens. If used properly this information will continue to introduce new levels of efficiency on how resources are used as population growth keeps increasing to alarming numbers. One company that takes advantage of a technology that is readily available to provide valuable information for its users is Waze, a real-time crowdsourced navigation app powered by one of the world's largest communities of drivers. The company announced it taking its platform one step further with the launch of its Connected Citizens Program, which will get cities and Waze users to collaborate in order to provide real-time information on the status of the roads they travel on.
The Waze Connected Citizens program is going to make the thousands or even tens of thousands of individuals that use the app in cities around the world the eyes and ears for municipalities. City officials will be able to integrate the information Waze users provide into their system and use the information to address a problem that has been reported by sending the right resources. Armed with this data they can then re-route the traffic or deploy the right personnel to manage the situation.
The first 10 partners, the “W10”, who have committed to work with Waze are: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Barcelona, Spain and the Government of Catalonia; Jakarta, Indonesia; Tel Aviv, Israel; San Jose, Costa Rica; Boston, USA; State of Florida, USA; State of Utah, USA; Los Angeles County; and The New York Police Department (NYPD).
For city officials, it is like adding a workforce of thousands of people for free so they can be their eyes and ears on the streets for reporting incidents.
“Waze was built by the global community with a sense that we're all in this together,” said Di-Ann Eisnor, head of Growth at Waze. “An affordable, accessible mobile platform like Waze eliminates superfluous layers and enables citizens and cities to connect directly. We are thrilled to pioneer the Connected Citizens program with the inaugural W10 class, who represent a commitment to efficiency and innovation on nearly every continent in the world.”
This initiative was in part inspired by the office of Mayor Eduardo Paes in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil when they asked Waze to help monitor the traffic conditions during the visit of Pope Francis. The Waze platform was embedded into the city’s Control Center of Rio (COR), which allowed reports from its users to go directly into the system, delivering a more accurate view of what was taking place in the streets of Rio.
“Waze gave the COR a deeper understanding of real-time conditions,” said Pedro Junqueira, Chief Executive of COR. “Road sensors and cameras are cost-prohibitive and can't scale to every corner of our city. The context of why traffic has occurred, in addition to specific incident reports, is invaluable.”
The company said there are more than 80 cities and municipal groups that have applied to be enrolled in the Connected Citizens program.
Edited by Maurice Nagle
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