Waze, Port Authority team up in New York to ease traffic

WEST VILLAGE, Manhattan (WABC) -- Lightening traffic and congestion around bus terminals, airports and bridges is the goal of a new Port Authority partnership in New York.

Waze, the real-time navigation app, is arranging a data exchange in New York to help the city make planning decisions.

The goal is to improve the commutes of New York-area residents, Waze said in a statement.

The data exchange with the Port Authority is meant to help New York apply real-time driver information around bus terminals, airports, bridges and tunnels.

The Port Authority and Waze have been sharing data for more than a month but they announced their official partnership Tuesday at the headquarters of Google, which owns Waze.

Waze helps drivers get places faster thanks to other drivers and passengers who provide alerts and insights about traffic backups and road closures.

Now, when the Port Authority knows about issues at bridges, tunnels and airports, it can alert drivers in real time, and the alerts will show up as official Port Authority information.

Wave will share its data with the Port Authority to help with infrastructure projects.

"At the end of the day, the commuters want to make share that they have predictable, reliable and accurate data," said Port Authority COO Stephanie Dawson. "This will help us give them that information so they can make an informed decision."

"If you're traveling to and from a Port Authority site, you have accurate, up to date, valid information from an official source," said Adam Fried of Waze.

250 transportation agencies around the world already partner with Waze. The Port Authority needed to ramp up its operations center and data collection before it could join in.