Toronto and Waze app agree to trade traffic data
In a new partnership, the city will give Waze data that will aid route planning, while the navigation app will work as a source of traffic-flow information for the city.

Thestar.com
David Rider
Nov. 20, 2017

The City of Toronto has started streaming traffic data to navigation app Waze in what Mayor John Tory hopes will be the first of many such partnerships.

Tory announced the agreement, which will also see Waze give the city information, Monday in the city’s traffic communications centre on Don Valley Rd.

California-based Waze, bought by search engine giant Google in 2013, gives drivers map-based, turn-by-turn navigation and traffic information. Users can electronically report accidents, traffic jams and other hazards, helping the app instantly identify drivers’ arrival times and the quickest trouble-free routes.

Waze is getting city data including road and lane closures, areas of heavy and light traffic, traffic-inducing special events such as Sunday’s Santa Claus Parade, accident locations and construction sites.

The city is getting anonymous data gleaned from movements of the more than 560,000 local Waze users. Transportation staff say the data will help ease congestion by steering people away from traffic jams, give the city a new source of traffic-flow information to help improve plans, and amplify city warnings about closures, road construction and major events that affect traffic.

No money is changing hands under the partnership. Waze earns revenue via in-app advertising based on the location of the user.

Tory said he is frequently a passenger on the way to events and uses Waze to navigate with great results. He is keen on other such partnerships.

This is the way of the future, Tory told reporters. Why would we not want to take advantage of the data that somebody like Waze has 560,000 people who can become traffic wardens, guiding each other efficiently through Canada's biggest city.

Mike Wilson, Waze’s Canada lead, said Winnipeg, Montreal and other municipal governments in many countries already share data with his company.

Asked about the safety of encouraging motorists to share information, Wilson said Waze does not want drivers to be distracted by the app. Features including voice activation to report traffic problems, promote safe use, he added.

Tory used the King St. pilot project as an example of traffic rule changes that can be instantly communicated to drivers through the app.

That one-year pilot, meant to speed up streetcars, compels drivers to turn right off of the street at most major intersections. Police began ticketing drivers who break those rules Monday, after a week of warnings.

Doug Ford, who lost to Tory in the 2014 mayoral election and is promising a rematch, summoned reporters Monday to King and Bay Sts.

He called the pilot project a “total disaster” and claimed a restaurateur told him it was hurting his business. Ford would not identify the business. He also said as mayor he would rip out some streetcar routes, but has not identified which ones.

Tory shrugged off the criticism, saying indications are that so far the King St. change has caused “minimal” disruption to drivers while greatly speeding the trips of 65,000 daily streetcar riders.

“It’s something that looks like it’s heading in the right direction but it’s a pilot project,” subject to change, Tory said.