Toronto to Share Traffic Data with Waze to Ease Traffic Congestion

Toronto Mayor John Tory has unveiled the city’s plan to battle traffic congestion at major intersections, which includes full-time “traffic wardens” to manage vehicle and pedestrian flow, starting in early 2018.

According to CBC News, the city will also deploy sharing traffic data with Waze, starting in October. The addition will mean the city’s traffic operations centre will have “more information about traffic patterns and app users will be better able to plan their routes,” reads the report.

Some other initiatives to ease traffic congestion will be to ask Toronto Hydro to do non-emergency work during off peak hours, while new “smart signals” will be installed in November to control traffic better.

Tory says he is “determined to deal with the congestion choking our roads.” Back in June, the Mayor tweeted the city was already working with Waze “to better manage traffic.”

What's next? We're thinking BIG. We're embracing technology & using real data to better manage traffic. Working with companies like @waze. pic.twitter.com/2Jf8ZBfoWl

— John Tory (@JohnTory) June 21, 2017

Back in July, Waze noted its Canadian user base had doubled annually since 2015, with the Greater Toronto Area alone seeing 400,000 active users.

Earlier today, Waze announced Spotify integration within its iOS app for the first time, a feature previously limited to Android users.

Last year, Montreal was the first Canadian city to share traffic data with Waze as part of the latter’s Connected Citizens Program.