3/19/2009
511 traveler service has busiest winter driving season ever; new browser capability
BOISE - Calls and web hits to the 511 Traveler Information Service grew by nearly 40-percent this past winter driving season with more than two million inquiries, according to Idaho Transportation Department statistics.
The system, which includes high-and low-bandwidth web capabilities and a phone system, also provided a mobile web site for the first time this year for internet-enabled cell phones. In addition, starting Wednesday (March 25), visitors to 511 using Firefox as a web browser will be better able to access the high bandwidth web site.
"I attribute the great success to a team effort," said Alison Lantz, ITD 511 system manager. She says maintenance crews in the districts are doing a great job providing scheduled road condition reports twice daily on week days, and once a day on weekends and holidays. They also update the reports continuously as conditions change from November to April. "They do an excellent job," Lantz said.
During the winter driving season from early November through the end of February, ITD's 511 system recorded 2,114,115 web and phone uses, easily eclipsing the previous high of 1.3 million last winter. This also is a substantial improvement over the 349,000 contacts recorded in the 2006-07 season.
The majority of those 511 contacts this season came during December, when the Boise area experienced 20 inches of snow and the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area had well over 60 inches of snowfall.