GDOT, Waze Enter Partnership

The Georgia Department of Transportation said it has entered into a data-sharing partnership with Waze, the free, real-time crowd sourced navigation app powered by the world’s largest community of drivers.

Designed as a free, two-way data share of publicly available traffic information, DOT officials said the Connected Citizens Program will promote greater efficiency, deeper insights and safer roads for citizens of Georgia, as it does for nearly 80 partners around the world.

According to the DOT, the partnership provides real-time, anonymous, Waze-generated incident and slow-down information to the department directly from the source: drivers themselves.

In exchange, the Georgia DOT said it will provide real-time construction, crash and road closure data to Waze.

Officials said this will result in a succinct, thorough overview of current road conditions.

Georgia DOT Commissioner Russell McMurry said this will give Georgia motorists real-time traffic information not only on our interstates and state routes, but also on arterial routes, information that is coming directly from the traveling public.

People can download the free Waze app through the App Store on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch or the Google Play Market for Android.