ODOT is expanding the capabilities of the TripCheck.com traffic tool to include Waze, the free traffic and navigation app powered by drivers. Waze reports, generated by anonymous users known as “Wazers,” will show up on ODOT’s TripCheck.com, allowing travelers around Oregon to view information such as traffic jams and incidents. By adding certain data to TripCheck from the Waze Connected Citizens Program, a free, two-way data share of publicly available traffic information, ODOT hopes to help users of the transportation system get where they are going more efficiently.
“We want to take advantage of new ideas and innovative technology that improve safety and reliability for everyone traveling around the state,” said ODOT Director Matt Garrett. “TripCheck.com has been a valuable resource for Oregonians for more than a decade, and adding Waze user-generated reports allows us to bypass the process of building and maintaining our own app for crowd-sourced data collection.”
The Waze Connected Citizens Program works with nearly 80 partners globally to promote greater efficiency, deeper insights and safer roads around the world. Established as a two-way data share, Waze provides partners with real-time, anonymous, Waze-generated incident and slow-down information directly from the source: drivers themselves. In exchange, ODOT provides 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.
“Waze is thrilled to see how ODOT continues to evolve its traffic management through the Waze Connected Citizens Program,” said Paige Fitzgerald, Connected Citizens Program Manager at Waze. “By harnessing the power of our crowd-sourced traffic information, ODOT is enhancing TripCheck and further optimizing the local driving experience.”
To find out more about Connected Citizens, visit their website here. To download the free Waze app for iOS or Android, visit https://www.waze.com/get.
This story is provided by ODOT
