Three types of notifications will be displayed on electronic boards, meaning preventive warning information will reach all road users, regardless of whether they use the Waze app.

The Transport Administration has been cooperating with the Waze app for a decade now, and during that time the authority has found it a reliable source of information, alongside other sources.

The app is interactive in that road users enter data, such as about a vehicle stopped by the highway, for other users to observe.

The administration finds this supports decision-making related to traffic management.

Information about hazard alerts added to the Waze navigation app — such as obstacles on the road, stopped vehicles, and accidents — is transmitted to the Transport Administration's traffic management system, and a warning message is then created and displayed on the nearest information board located ahead of the event site.

In addition to the alert text, a warning sign and the approximate distance to the hazard will be shown. The maximum distance between a hazard and the info board pertaining to it will be 10 km.

Waze has a built-in safety net to prevent malicious or accidental false reporting: Confirmations added to an event indicate that the hazard is real and that the information is reliable. Confirming an existing event which Waze has already notified users of also helps the system understand that this situation is still current. Conversely, if an event is over — for instance a halted vehicle has now moved on — users can flag this with Waze too.

The hazard alerts will generally reach information boards automatically, but on high-traffic road sections, a semi-automatic system will be used during the working hours of the traffic management center, meaning that a traffic operator assesses the situation and confirms the decision.

Variable message signs will generally continue to display weather-related warning messages and other traffic-related information.

The administration notes that while driving, a driver's primary focus must be on traffic and vehicle control. Using Waze must never come at the expense of safety, and when adding or confirming a hazard alert, this should be done safely, for instance by asking a passenger to enter the data, or by the driver pulling over to do the same.

The hazard alert system to be used on Estonia's highways was developed in cooperation with traffic management system development and maintenance partners Traffest OÜ and SWARCO ITALIA s.r.l.

Hazards on the road can also always be reported via the national information phone number: 1247.

Waze is a Google subsidiary developed in Israel. It describes itself as a community-driven initiative, free to download and use.

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