January February 2018

American Traffic Safety Services Association 36 The ITS World Congress 2017 in Montréal, Canada, featured several ses- sions focused on using Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to make work zones safer, and integrating agency data into mobile applications. These topics address the issues of handling the dynamics of the ever-changing work zone. While new technologies like Connected Automated Vehicles (CAVs) are intended to make U.S. roadways safer by connecting every aspect of the road to the vehicle and/or driver, there still is an issue of accounting for work zones that aren’t connected, are located in rural areas, or are not reported to the traffic management center. Waze, the world’s largest community based traffic and navigation app, believes it has a solution, albeit a temporary one, to bridge these gaps in communication. Waze’s Connected Citizens Program, a free two-way data exchange is a prom- ising data-sharing program that could have valuable uses for work zone safety. The program is an upgrade from the 511 technology states have used; the data transmission is so efficient that incidents are reported and disseminated faster than traditional 911 calls. According to Waze’s website, “The Connected Citizens Program (CCP) is proof that we already have the answers to some of today’s mobility challenges. The Waze map strengthens with every data point contributed across our vast community of everyday drivers and volunteer map editors. Via the CCP, hun- dreds of international cities, departments of transportation, and first responders have built meaningful relationships and regularly knowledge share to identify creative solutions. From road manage- ment tomeasurable congestion reduction, these are the initiatives building cities of tomorrow.” The CCP attempts to tackle data sharing from a few different angles including working directly with transportation departments, and by crowdsourcing data fromeveryday drivers. The panelists in a session at this year’s ITS World Congress spoke about the ease of use and the many safety benefits of sharing information with Waze. Chris Lambert with Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) spoke about the department’s Waze integration. Previously, KYTC was relying on its 511 system, which only had a few thousand hits per month, but since implementing the Waze CCP, was able to reach tens of thousands of drivers per day. This program is expanding sig- nificantly, and Waze is adding one new city per day to its CCP data sharing. Adam Fries, from Google’s Waze, spoke about how the company is accounting for unreported work zones. He said Waze is relying on transportation depart- ments to share their traffic plan infor- mation and are utilizing Waze users and their field specialists to submit reports. Fries said Waze uses a reliability scale for its users to determine whether the information is accurate. Users are rated on a scale from one to 10, based on previous reporting and the reliability of their information. They also are beginning towork with state transportation depart- ments to collect their information about work zones and road closures as a part of the CCP. These closures and work zone notifications provided by trans- portation departments will integrate into Waze’s interface and notify a driver of what to expect down the road. Ultimately, this system is not the final solution in accounting for unreported work zones, but at least it is attempting to address the issue with “off the grid” work zones and lane closures. Crowd- sourcing traffic information is a novel approach, but Waze’s goal is to integrate its technology into every state transpor- tation department’s infrastructure plans. This free data-sharing effort could sig- nificantly improve how work zones are reported and added to navigationmaps. The next step must be to integrate this information into all navigation providers to ensure everyone has the most up-to- date news on traffic incidents. Report from ITSWorld Congress 2017 Montréal New system attempts to monitor physical infrastructure, work zones into dynamic digital maps By ATSSA Director of New Programs, Brian Watson New Programs