Cary Partners With 'Waze' App, Benefiting Drivers

CARY, IL — Cary officials are taking a measure to make driving around the village easier by making use of the Waze app, which is used for GPS navigation. The village's partnership with the app marks the third municipality to do so in Illinois.

Waze allows motorists to report accidents, police presence, cars on the side of the road, potholes and other information helpful to other drivers. The Village of Cary is now taking an official role in reporting traffic-related information to the app as part of the Connected Citizens program, according to the Northwest Herald.

If you haven't used Waze, try it—especially if you drive through Cary. Road hazards and police simply show up on the map and when you get there, you can confirm it is still there, say it's not there or simply do nothing. The app requires the user to confirm they are a passenger as well, to avoid distracted driving.

About the partnership with the app, Cary management analyst Courtney Sage said “We are able to go in and create those edits in real time." The Public Works Department has already been using the app, the Herald reported, to notify motorists of road closures, planned and unplanned.

It's not like anybody can enter any information into Waze and it will go live. Multiple users have to separately confirm the same piece of information in order for it to be mapped, but official village accounts will be able to make those changes directly.

Village officials will be able to schedule road closures with the app, meaning drivers will have immediate access to that information. Waze already calculates the fastest routes, but an added benefit of the partnership will be that drivers can better plan their trips.

Eric Morimoto, Cary's Public Works Director, sees it as a win-win due to the simplicity and how little resources are needed. “The beauty of it is the real-time nature of it,” he said, according to the Herald. “It’s a simple matter of a couple of clicks to get [traffic condition input] done in the field as well.”

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