Using Real-Time Traffic Data to Improve Civic Transportation Services

Using Real-Time Traffic Data to Improve Civic Transportation Services
Chapel Hill Transit
Team Organizations	Open Data Soft; Waze Connected Citizen; Amazon Web Services
Team Leaders	Caroline Dumortier
Participating Municipalities	Chapel Hill NC
Status
Document	None

Description

This project will expand Chapel Hill’s Data program to incorporate Waze real-time traffic data. Chapel Hill already uses the OpenDataSoft platform to share public data across the town government and with citizens. This project will allow to the town to quickly and seamlessly collect, harmonize and analyze real-time traffic data through the Waze Connected Citizens Program. The Waze Connected Citizen is a free data exchange program. The OpenDataSoft platform enables the two-way free data exchange between Waze and Chapel Hill and provides tools to analyze the data and compare it with other transportation data already offered by the town.

Challenges

Understanding and responding to road activity in real time is a real challenge for cities.

Solutions

This partnership provides the opportunity to harness real-time driver insights to improve congestion and make better urban planning decisions. This is a free, two-way data share of publicly available traffic information. Waze provides real-time, anonymous, Waze-generated incident and traffic congestion information directly from the drivers. This two-way data exchange between OpenDataSoft and Waze provides a powerful tool to help improve data accuracy and generate insights on how citizens navigate their roadways, where problems arise, and how to fix them. This partnership allows for greater government transparency and collaboration among citizens to reduce congestion and help people better navigate their cities.

Major Requirements

The OpenDataSoft platform provides a one-stop hub to facilitate the two-way data share. The first step is to connect Chapel Hill’s Open Data portal to the Waze data via the OpenDataSoft platform. The second step is to open these resources to the town to create civic insights. Using the OpenDataSoft platform, town officials can combine Waze traffic data with existing Open Data in transportation services such as bike sharing, buses, parking, and subway, offering local governments an unprecedented view of how their transportation systems interact.

Performance Targets

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)	Measurement Methods
Traffic jam and congestion reduction by 15% by helping people better navigate their cities. Emergency intervention travel time reduction by 10% Traffic safety improvement by sharing planned traffic diversions and construction in advance, allowing drivers to avoid these areas.	The methods to measure the performance/KPI impact are based on the performance management indicators available via the platform.

Standards, Replicability, Scalability, and Sustainability

• The project is designed with a focus on interoperability. The Waze Connected Citizen Program data share will be conducted via the OpenDataSoft platform, allowing Chapel Hill town officials to quickly and seamlessly combine this data with their other transportation service data.
• The OpenDataSoft platform acts as a one-stop hub to facilitate the two-way data share between the city and Waze. Any city using the OpenDataSoft platform will be able to quickly and seamlessly receive the data shared by Waze and incorporate it with their other transportation service data, including bike sharing, buses, parking, and subway information. . The project can be replicated in any city using the OpenDataSoft platform and can be scaled to any size city. This project is designed to ensure replicability, scalability and sustainability.

Impacts

This project will give Chapel Hill a new look at real time road activity. The program provides the opportunity to harness real-time driver insights to improve congestion and make better informed urban planning decisions. OpenDataSoft and Waze will partner with Chapel Hill to provide real-time, anonymous, Waze-generated incident and traffic congestion information directly from the source: drivers themselves. In exchange, Chapel Hill will provide real-time government-reported construction, crash and road closure data to Waze via the OpenDataSoft platform. Together, these data sets will offer one of the most succinct, thorough overviews of current road conditions today. Combining Waze traffic data with existing transportation Open Data will offer Chapel Hill an unprecedented view of how their transportation systems interact. This two-way data exchange between Chapel Hill and Waze via the OpenDataSoft platform provides a powerful tool to help improve data accuracy and generate insights on how citizens navigate their roadways, where problems arise, and how to fix them. This partnership allows for greater government transparency and collaboration among citizens to reduce congestion and help people better navigate their cities.

Demonstration/Deployment

We will demonstrate the real-time data available through the Waze, OpenDataSoft and Chapel Hill partnership at the GCTC Expo in August. Attendees will be able to use the OpenDataSoft platform to combine and visualize Chapel Hill transportation services data based on Waze-generated traffic data.