Tracking Trouble

The community-based road navigation app, Waze, is trying to help motorists avoid traffic slow down due to accidents, as well as flooding. To make this possible Waze recently worked with Thinking Machines, a data science consultancy, to identify the 10 most accident- and flood-prone areas that motorists should watch out for, to encourage road safety and awareness now that rains are becoming much more frequent.

Through data gathered from accident and flood reports per square kilometer in the Philippines since the fourth quarter of 2018, the top 10 most accident-prone cities are Makati, Mandaluyong, Pasay, Manila, Pasig, Quezon City, San Juan, Taguig, Paranaque, and Marikina. When it comes to flooding these cities tops the list: Manila, Makati, Mandaluyong, Pasay, San Juan, Quezon City, Taguig, Las Pinas, Navotas, and Pasig.

“The data garnered in collaboration with the Thinking Machines indicate that more can be done to encourage road safety and alleviate congestion, and we hope to continually leverage the cooperation of our 2.85 million active user base in the Philippines to help prevent accidents by providing crowdsourced updates on heavy traffic, floods and road closures in real-time,” says Waze Philippines country manager, Sarah Rodriguez.

Encourage road safety

Thinking Machines Data Science CEO Stephanie Sy adds that this partnership hopes to encourage road safety and awareness during the rainy season considering that sudden downpours expose drivers to heavier traffic and a higher risk of vehicular accidents. “Waze data offers a wealth of insight about safety and traffic conditions on our roads. We hope this information can be used to design policies and programs that improve transportation for everyone.”

Both outfits hope that the pile of data points gathered can be used to start in the near future, a way of predicting how bad flooding will be or which part of the city will likely have an occurrence of road accident, rather than waiting for user input or sensor data. Such app could then push out alerts like, telling motorists that certain roadways will likely be still flooded during the next morning’s commute.

So the next time a heavy rain occurs, don’t just use the Waze app to assist every motorist in navigating the city’s road network. To report instances of congestion, accidents, flooding, road closures or any other traffic incidents on Waze, just tap “Reports” (orange button on the bottom right of the screen). This will save your location if you choose to submit the report later. Afterward, select the report type from the “Report” menu and then, tap “Send” to share the report.