Aplicação de crowdsourcing na gestão e no planejamento de transportes: conceitos, potencialidades e parcerias do Waze

This article develops a commented literature research on the use of crowdsourcing tools in urban management and planning, specifically in transports and urban mobility. Initially, we present the concepts of mapping and crowdsourcing, and then the technique of collaborative mapping, derived from those two concepts. In order to illustrate this technique, a few examples of collaborative platforms that make use of spatial data to create maps on different subjects and for different purposes and audiences are listed. In a deeper approach, we present the operating principles of Waze app and its partnership program with local governments in several cities worldwide. Next, we describe how these geocollaborative systems have already contributed for cities management as well as their potential uses, given the tools at their disposal, with emphasis on issues related to transportation systems. Finally, we conclude that collaborative mapping represents a step forward in cartography and can be used by public authorities as a tool for democratization of urban management and planning processes. Without neglecting the use of traditional information collection techniques, they may additionally use these collaborative spatial data for decision-making in a wider and more consistent perspective in transports, as well as in other fields.