Every day, millions of citizens use Google Maps, Waze, and other Google geospatial tools to access basic information about our cities, our traffic, and our public transport. These tools can also provide important support to local and regional authorities, helping them channel information to their citizens and visitors and enabling data analysis for decisions.

With these benefits in mind, POLIS and Google jointly organised exclusive online tutorials for POLIS members to explain how to put Google’s free tools to work for cities and regions, helping improve mobility, environmental sustainability, road safety, and economic growth. For a tailored and interactive approach, there were dedicated sessions for political leaders and for professionals working for local and regional authorities.

On 20 and 23 June 2025, tutorials were held for high-level officials in local and regional government and transport authorities, including political leaders and their advisors, board members of public companies and agencies (e.g., CEO, COO, CIO, and their advisors), directors, division heads, and strategists.

Geo for Cities: Tools for cities and regions

Sarah-Jayne Williams, Google, introduced the session, outlined the key challenges cities face today, ranging from inclusion and safety to air quality and economic vibrancy, and positioned Google’s tools as part of the solution. The company’s mission is to support cities, regions, and national governments in creating more sustainable and accessible communities.

Google has developed a suite of geospatial products under the umbrella of Geo for Cities, which supports infrastructure planning and daily operations. These include tools for end users, platforms for partners to contribute data, and analytics products designed to provide long-term insights.

Geo for Cities' offerings include:

• User-facing tools, which reach over 2 billion people worldwide.
• Partner platforms, allowing partners to contribute data and curate maps.
• Data insights products, which support both operational and long-term infrastructure planning.

Overall, the goal is to help cities and regions address challenges such as managing tourism, reducing congestion, improving safety, and encouraging active transport.

User-facing tools

Britta Duerscheid, Google, presented the user-facing tools that impact over two billion users globally.

• Google Maps remains a central tool, offering real-time traffic, eco-friendly routing, information on low-emission zones, and access to more than 500,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. Features like fuel-efficient routing are now live in 40 European countries and aim to reduce both emissions and costs. It strives to deliver accurate schedules and disruption data, while also promoting sustainable alternatives by suggesting walking or transit when it's time-efficient. Walking and cycling routes are enhanced with detailed infrastructure data, including sidewalks, crossings, and elevation changes. This functionality is now active in 17 European cities. In parallel, real-time availability for shared bikes and scooters is offered in over 500 cities, and wheelchair-accessible routing has been improved significantly. 
• Waze, a community-driven app with over 200 million users, complements Google Maps by offering hyper-local traffic alerts. These include notifications on crashes, speed fluctuations, school zones, and road hazards. The platform incorporates data from both users and authorities, allowing for rapid updates during emergencies like floods or wildfires.
• Google Business Profiles, which supports over 250 million business and place listings globally, is regularly updated by 500 million contributors. Local governments can claim and manage their own public-facing venues, ensuring accurate service and contact information. This also helps local businesses increase their visibility and connect with customers more effectively.

Partner contribution platforms

Michael Firnhaber, Google, introduced the platforms that enable city partners to directly contribute to and maintain data in Google’s ecosystem. These include:

• Transit partners platform, where agencies submit public transport data such as schedules and disruptions.
• Maps content partners' platform, for updating addresses, roads, and other map features.
• Environmental and mobility data partners, which contribute information on emissions zones, speed limits, and EV infrastructure.

These platforms support both real-time feeds and manual updates, and they provide dashboards to track data status and quality. The aim is to reduce duplication of effort while maintaining high data standards. Michael also addressed the value of these tools in shaping tourist behaviour, enhancing crisis response, and improving traffic flows through better communication.

Participants raised questions about data sharing between Waze and Google Maps, and whether edits need to be made on both platforms separately. It was clarified that while feed-based data is now shared across both apps, manual edits must still be made individually due to underlying differences in the map systems. However, ongoing efforts aim to streamline this further.

Data insights products

Sarah-Jayne Williams introduced the data insights products, beginning with Waze for Cities, which offers both live traffic feeds and historical data to assist with planning and operations. This data is already being used by many cities to monitor traffic incidents in real time.

Another major tool is the Environmental Insights Explorer (EIE), available in approximately 7,000 cities. It offers insights into building and transport emissions, solar potential, and tree canopy coverage. These data points support Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) and Climate Action Plans. The transportation module also tracks modal splits and commuting patterns, with data going back over seven years.

Pilot initiatives

Several innovative projects were also presented, including:

• Project Green Light: Aimed at reducing stops and emissions at intersections. It's currently live in about 20 cities and has shown measurable improvements in traffic flow and air quality.
• Flood Forecasting Tool: An AI-based model that provides advanced warnings of riverine floods up to seven days in advance, now available in over 80 countries.
• Google Earth + Generative AI: Still in early development, this tool will allow users to query geospatial information using natural language—for example, asking about EV station counts or tree coverage.

Google emphasised that their tools are just the beginning, and they are committed to evolving them based on feedback from city partners. 

To view the full recording of the tutorial, please click here.