Tollway partners with Waze app for faster traffic alerts
The Illinois Tollway is sharing data with the popular navigation app Waze to get news about traffic backups and closed lanes out faster to road users.
Since February, the Tollway has been receiving data from Googleowned Waze on traffic incidents such as debris on the road, stalls and potholes. The Tollway has in turn been sharing with Waze any incidents related to lane blockages, including crashes, stalls and the locations of Tollway help trucks, said Elyse Morgan, the Tollway’s traffic operations center manager. In mid-May, the Tollway also will begin providing information on roadwork to Waze.
Some of the information is also available through the Tollway’s website and Twitter accounts, but the Waze partnership allows it to go right to the phones of Waze users. The moment one of the Tollway’s help trucks turns on its lights, a signal is sent directly to Waze notifying users of a stopped vehicle at that location, said Tollway spokesman Dan Rozek.
People using Waze do not have to wait to see a warning sign on the Tollway, or actually see the help truck on the side of the road, Morgan said. “Customers get it fast, so they can use a little due caution out there,” Morgan said.
Waze collects information about traffic conditions through drivers, who can contribute passively by driving with the app open on their phones, according to the Waze website. They also can actively share road reports about crashes or other hazards.
Waze has about 600 community partnerships nationwide, including data-sharing arrangements with Naperville, Evanston and the Lake County Department of Transportation, Rozek said.
Morgan said the costs of the partnership have been small, and involved tweaks to the Tollway’s web servers and other equipment.
A Google representative could not immediately be reached for comment.