Montréal a leader among Canadian cities - Montréal joins Waze Connected Citizens Program to improve users' experience on Montréal roads

MONTRÉAL, April 22, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - Aref Salem, member of the city's executive committee in charge of transportation, Harout Chitilian, vice-chair of the city's executive committee and member in charge of smart city initiatives, and Lionel Perez, in charge of infrastructures, announced today that a free partnership has been signed with Waze, the free, crowdsourced navigation app powered by the world's largest community of drivers, as part of a two-year pilot project. The agreement calls for two-way data sharing of publicly available traffic information within Ville-Marie borough using Waze.

"As part of this innovative partnership, the participatory information of Waze users will help to fuel the city's Centre de gestion de la mobilité urbaine de Montréal (CGMU). By obtaining real-time data, the city wants to improve its reactivity to traffic jams, accidents or other incidents on the road and minimize the impact on drivers. Montréal is the first city in Canada to use Waze data, and if the project is conclusive, we plan to extend its deployment across the city," said Salem.

"We are excited to welcome Montréal as our first partner in Canada," said Paige Fitzgerald, Connected Citizens Program Manager at Waze. "Waze is only as strong as the information it receives from its users. Montréal is a growing community for Waze and the immense data Montréal can contribute to the Waze app makes them a valued partner moving forward."

Details of the partnership
As part of this data exchange agreement, the city will make its planned traffic obstruction data available. This data is already public information. Waze, owned by Google, Inc., will provide Montréal with real-time, anonymous, Waze-generated incident and slow-down information directly from the source: drivers themselves. Financial compensation is not part of the agreement.

The CGMU uses a number of information sources in order to find innovative solutions to traffic issues in Montréal. However, when unplanned incidents arise, instantaneous information sharing becomes crucial. This is why the city is interested in Waze data and wants to analyze how useful it is for managing local issues.

"This year, there will be a number of major construction projects in Ville-Marie. This pilot project is a concrete illustration of initiatives to facilitate road travel for users when there are obstructions to traffic," said Lionel Perez.

Waze in Montréal and elsewhere
Waze specializes in collecting real-time traffic and road condition information through its community.  Waze has more than 103,000 monthly active users in Montréal who drive more than  19 million kilometres each month with the app. In December alone, they reported nearly 250,000 incidents. This information is transmitted to other Waze users in realtime, helping them plan their travels.

The Waze Connected Citizens Program gives municipal leaders an unprecedented look at real-time road activity, empowering decisions that achieve concrete community impact. Launched in October 2014 with 10 city partners, the program has expanded to more than 63 partners including city, state and country government agencies, nonprofits and first responders.

"Collecting mobility data is part of our 'Montréal, Smart and Digital City Action Plan.' A smart city knows how to take advantage of the expertise of dynamic companies in the field of new technologies to improve service to its residents. In addition to the benefits it offers users of Montréal's roads, the partnership with Waze helps to position Montréal as a national and international leader among smart cities," said Harout Chitilian.

This project is one of 70 projects in the "Montréal, Smart and Digital City 2015 Action Plan." A complete version of the plan can be found online.

For more information on Waze Connected Citizens Program, please visit www.waze.com/ccp. To download the free Waze app for iOS or Android, visit http://www.waze.com/get.

Twitter: #innmtl, @mtlvi
Web site: http://villeintelligente.montreal.ca/ http://fairemtl.ca
Facebook.com/mtlvi

SOURCE Ville de Montréal - Cabinet du maire et du comité exécutif

Source: Andrée-Anne, Toussaint, attachée de presse, Cabinet du maire et du comité exécutif, 514 243-1268; Meghan Kelleher, Communications Manager at Waze, [phone]; Renseignements: Valérie De Gagné, relationniste, Service des communications, 514 872-6013; John Settino, The iPR Group, 416-850-2524, [email protected]