Mayor Garcetti first mentioned in his State of the City address last week that Waze and LA would soon share information, and now it's on. LA will begin sharing its road closure data in real-time with Waze to help you get around town, reports the LA Times. The city will be offering up details about street repairs, accidents, and permitted road closures like construction sites, film shoots, and farmers markets. Never get surprised by a film-related street closure in the middle of your drive home again (probably)!
In return, Waze will give LA real-time data about street conditions and traffic patterns that it receives from user input, allowing LA to improve city services, send traffic cops where they're needed faster, and generally be more on top of what's going on on the streets. As the program grows over the next few months, drivers will be able to receive details about Amber Alerts and hit-and-runs directly through the app, says the Daily News.
The city will not be giving out data about cops, so Waze isn't likely to help anyone avoid a speeding ticket. The police are the main reason L.A. hasn't been swapping information with Waze already: the LAPD worried that people might use the app to track down officers. Currently, all of the police-related information on the app is reported by the users themselves, and it's going to stay that way. —Leonard Hyman
· Waze, L.A. to share data on traffic, hit-and-runs, kidnappings [LAT]
· Traffic app Waze getting hit-and-run, road closure info as part of Los Angeles partnership [LADN]
· The 5 Biggest-Deal Plans From the LA State of the City Address [Curbed LA]
· Westsiders Freaking That People Are Driving By Their Houses [Curbed LA]
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