Oregon DOT partners with traffic navigation app Waze

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) announced this week it is teaming with a company that has developed a navigation app to share information with drivers.

The Waze app provides real-time, crowd-sourced navigation that is powered by the Waze Connected Citizens Program. The program was designed to share traffic information and to promote greater efficiency, safer roads and deeper insights for drivers.

“Oregon already has a strong Waze community with major cities like Portland,” Connected Citizens Program Manager at Waze Paige Fitzgerald said. “We can now enhance the local map quality of Waze with data from ODOT like road closures and severe weather alerts, even in rural areas.”

The program will enable drivers and ODOT officials to update traffic information in real-time to provide safer driving throughout the state. The information is updated every two minutes and includes weather data, road reports and construction updates.

“We’re pretty excited about this two-way partnership,” ODOT’s Intelligent Transportation Systems Manager Galen McGill said. “Citizen-supplied data will add to the eyes and ears of ODOT staff already out on the roads and highways. Waze users travel in places where we can’t have roadway sensors or cameras so it greatly enhances our ability to provide up to the minute and accurate traffic data to the public.”