City of Virginia Beach
Shirell Hairston, IT Media & Communications

Designed as a free, two-way data share of publicly available traffic and road status information, the Connected Citizens Program promotes greater efficiency, deeper insights and safer roads for Virginia Beach citizens, commuters, and visitors. This two-way data-sharing partnership is implemented via the Waze (www.waze.com) transportation mobile application.

The City's goal was to implement an innovative technology solution to access real-time road conditions and push crowd-sourced information in order to warn, prevent and protect citizens and visitors within our city due to the effects of unplanned natural disasters like Hurricane Matthew or large-scale, planned events.

By implementing the Waze technology and two-way data sharing partnership, the City of Virginia Beach is able to publish and receive real-time road hazard, road closure and traffic data to/from the Waze mobile app during inclement weather and major traffic events such as marathons, festivals, parades and holiday weekends. This data can help reduce congestion and better inform transportation infrastructure decisions for city government.

The map evolves with every driver and data point it receives. During emergency situations, Virginia Beach has capability to provide evacuation status, shelter location and open gas station data for users to search. There also is an SOS button to call for roadside assistance.

Through the Waze Connected Citizens Program, our data-sharing partnership also provides us the opportunity to learn from one another, improve city efficiency and offer citizens innovative mobility tools to have a safer, more enjoyable commute.

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