Sunday, October 13, 2002
FHWA 44-02
Contact: Bill Outlaw
Tel.: 202-366-0660
FHWA Cites Top Web Sites That Provide Vital Safety, Congestion Information to
Travelers
ANCHORAGE, AK—The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
today announced the winners of its 2002 national awards for traveler information
web sites that provide vital information about safety and mobility to users
nationwide.
“The internet is an important means of providing
traveler information,” FHWA Administrator Mary E. Peters said.
“These outstanding sites were chosen because of their ‘user
friendliness,’ comprehensiveness of information, and real-time reporting.
Reliable, accessible traveler information helps relieve congestion and
improve safety by giving travelers and shippers the information they need to
choose the best time, route, and even mode of transportation.”
Recognized as the top traffic information sites in the
United States were the Houston (TX) TranStar web site, the Rhode Island
Department of Transportation traffic information web site, the Oregon Department
of Transportation Trip Check web site, and the GCM Travel web site, a
cooperative effort of the Gary-Chicago-Milwaukee priority corridor partners: the
Illinois, the Indiana and the Wisconsin Departments of Transportation.
The winners were formally recognized at the board of directors meeting of
the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)
in Anchorage, AK.
Houston TranStar (http://traffic.tamu.edu/)
is a consortium of agencies in the greater Houston area.
The Texas Department of Transportation, working with the Texas
Transportation Institute, sponsors the web site.
For the second year in a row, Houston TranStar’s team is a winner.
Houston TranStar provides information and links related to most modes of
transportation, emergency preparedness and environmental issues.
Houston TranStar also has added cameras and links to roadway weather
stations.
Oregon Trip Check (http://www.tripcheck.com),
developed by the Oregon Department of Transportation, provides information to
help people make good decisions. Users
especially like the road cameras—more than 100 of them, including 45 in rural
areas such as mountain passes where knowing road conditions can be crucial to
safety. Trip Check updates highway
information in the regional offices. It
extends to other modes and links to transit, ridesharing, bicycle and airport
information. More transit
information is on the way with the start of a statewide trip planner project.
The Rhode
Island DOT traffic information website (http://www.dot.state.ri.us)
gets lots of “thank you’s” from people who use it for routing and easing
their commute. Businesses
particularly like the e-mail alerts for routing trucks.
Cooperation with the maintenance and construction departments has been
essential to providing good information; splitting responsibilities between
content and technology has produced a usable site with good content.
The GCM
Travel web site (http://www.gcmtravel.com),
developed by the Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin Departments of Transportation,
is based on extensive data all three states send to a data-sharing system.
With this system, users can link to information across the entire
three-state priority corridor, including cameras, traffic maps, and dynamic
message sign messages. There is
already some multimodal information, with a link to airport information through
an icon on the traffic map. A
transit icon and a link to a regional transit trip planner are being added in
time for the ITS World Congress in November in Chicago.
Down the line, real-time transit information will be added to the data
sharing system, and a 511 traveler information system will use the same data
sharing system to provide information on the phone.
Content in the reviewed Web sites was evaluated on whether
it presented information on current conditions, incidents, construction notices,
high occupancy vehicle lanes, tolls, and the extent to which other useful
information and links were provided. Usability
criteria addressed such things as the organization of information on the site,
navigation through the site, and how well the information is described to the
users.
The technologies of Intelligent Transportation Systems
(ITS) provide data to populate traveler information web sites.
For more information about ITS and the web awards, visit the Federal
Highway Administration’s operations website at www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov.
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