The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) has joined Waze in a two-way data-sharing partnership that promotes safety, more efficient travel, reduced congestion, and lower emissions across one of the world’s busiest transportation systems.
Supporting its core mission to ensure safe and efficient regional travel, the Port Authority has announced a new data-sharing partnership with Waze, the free crowdsourced traffic and navigation app, for real-time sharing of traffic data across the agency’s bridges, tunnels, bus terminals, and the roadways serving its airports and seaports.
The partnership gives PANYNJ a more comprehensive set of information to add to its existing sources on travel and traffic conditions, including cameras, road sensors, and other devices. It will allow the Port Authority to better alert customers to changing traffic conditions, identify trouble spots, develop better predictive modeling, and manage traffic in real time, such as diverting vehicles around a closure.
The Port Authority will also feed information on lane closures, traffic incidents, and other events, to the Waze platform in real time, reaching the large number of Waze users (Wazers) in the region.
The Port Authority is the first agency in the New York-New Jersey region to join the data-sharing scheme, known as the Waze Connected Citizens Program, with the partnership creating no additional costs to the agency or public.
Waze’s Connected Citizens Program is a free, two-way data share of publicly available traffic information that promotes improved traffic flow, operational efficiency, and safer roads, for more than 250 transportation agencies worldwide. Waze uses crowdsourcing, with data provided anonymously and directly by users while they drive, to build a continually updated picture of traffic conditions. It has the world’s largest community of drivers for this type of smartphone application.
“Accurate and timely data drives all of the Port Authority’s activities to promote safety, minimize congestion, and reduce emissions, throughout one of the world’s most complex transportation networks and the communities we serve,” noted Stephanie Dawson, the Port Authority’s chief operating officer. “This partnership with Waze provides an immense resource of real-time information, and gives us a new channel to alert drivers about changing conditions.”
Adam Fried, Waze’s global partnerships manager, commented, “We welcome the Port Authority, which is one of the world’s busiest transportation agencies, into our global community of partners. In just a few short months, we have more than doubled participation in the Connected Citizens Program and are now adding one new partner onto the program each day. The program has had an immense impact on mobility in communities globally, from Rio De Janeiro to Los Angeles, Washington DC to Jakarta; and now New York.
“The Port Authority already is seeing a local impact for drivers navigating to and from their bridges, tunnels and airports. Cities everywhere are undergoing a massive transportation revolution, and we are thrilled to be at the forefront of this movement to continue making travel easier and more efficient.”
