Bartow County Joins Others in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida in Free Data Share Program with Waze in Hopes to Ease Congestion
Press Release: Bartow County this week announced it is one of seven new Southeast U.S. municipalities to join a data-sharing partnership with Waze (http://www.waze.com), the free navigation app powered by the world’s largest community of drivers, strengthening the partnership’s presence to nine in the region. Designed as a free data share of publicly-available traffic information, the Connected Citizens Program promotes greater efficiency, deeper insights and safer roads for citizens of Bartow County along with more than 55 other partners around the world.
The Waze Connected Citizens Program launched in October 2014 with ten inaugural partners, including the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). In just one and a half years, Waze has reached ten partners in the Southeast U.S.: new partners City of Charlotte (N.C.), City of Raleigh (N.C.), Atlanta (Ga.), Bartow County (Ga.), West Jackson (Ga.), City of Miami Beach (Fla.) and City of Tampa (Fla.) as well as existing FDOT (Fla.) and Johns Creek (Ga.).
“We are excited to have another outlet for providing planned road closure information to our community. We hope that by providing the public parking lot and business locations, visitors will have a better experience in our communities, “ said Steve Taylor, Sole Commissioner at Bartow County. “We look forward to all the possibilities the Waze data gives us in terms of providing traffic streaming for public safety personnel and emergency responders.”
The Waze Connected Citizens Program gives municipal leaders an unprecedented look at real-time road activity, empowering decisions that achieve concrete community impact. Waze provides partners with real-time, anonymous, Waze-generated incident and slow-down information directly from the source: drivers themselves. In exchange, partners provide 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.
“Bartow County, GA will contribute critical data to the Waze app which is key for hyperlocal citizen support,” said Paige Fitzgerald, Connected Citizens Program Manager at Waze. “We’ve reached the milestone of nine Southeast U.S. partners thanks to the open, innovative attitudes of these municipal leaders. Partners gain access to even more creative solutions and support with every organization who joins Connected Citizens, and we’re excited to foster these relationships to drive further impact in the region.”
Deep technical knowledge is not required to be selected as a partner of the Connected Citizens Program. It is critical that prospective partners prove their dedication to citizen engagement and commit to use Waze data to improve city efficiency. Partners are also expected to measure and
share their findings with other municipal organizations, developing case studies that serve as keys to a global set of improvements for collective mobility.
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.