FHWA 28-03
Contact: Nancy Singer
Tel.: (202) 366-0660
Sunday, September 7, 2003
Federal Highway Administration Recognizes Outstanding Traveler Information
Web sites
The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
has announced the third annual winners of its national awards for traveler
information Web sites that give travelers easy access to current information
about safety and mobility on the highways.
Recognized as the top traffic information sites in the United States are the
Georgia Navigator Web site, the Washington State Department of Transportation
traffic information Web site, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet TRIMARC Web
site and the Gary-Chicago-Milwaukee (GCM) travel Web site, a cooperative effort
of the GCM Priority Corridor Partners, the Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin
Departments of Transportation.
FHWA Deputy Administrator Richard Capka formally recognized the winners at the
board of directors meeting of the American Association of State Highway and
Transportation Officials (AASHTO) on Sept. 7, 2003, in Minneapolis.
"The World Wide Web is an important means of providing traveler information,"
Capka said. "These outstanding sites were chosen because of their user
friendliness, comprehensiveness and real-time reporting. Reliable, accessible
traveler information saves travelers and shippers lives, time and money by
giving them choices of time, route and even mode of transportation."
The selections were made following a national review of 276 traveler information
Web sites, covering both content and usability of the sites. Content evaluation
was based on whether the sites provided information on current conditions such
as incidents, construction notices, high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes and
tolls. Usability criteria addressed organization, navigation and presentation of
information to users.
The Georgia Department of Transportation's Georgia
Navigator (www.georgianavigator.com) was just redesigned with a new map of the
state, more cameras, customized information on travel times, major alerts at the
top of the page and information from weather stations. Faster servers and
increased bandwidth have been added to handle the large volume of users. The
Georgia DOT continues to seek input from the public by surveying users about Web
site features, frequency and time of use and whether information is used to
alter a route or mode of transportation. Upcoming site enhancements include
streaming video for real-time cameras, "My Navigator" personalized home pages
and mobile device capability such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and cell
phones.
The Washington State Department of Transportation Web site (www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic)
receives continual favorable feedback from its many users. In one peak month,
the site registered 67 million page views. The information is organized
according audience and usability. Functionality standards ensure that all agency
Web pages look and function in the same way. The site currently is designed for
Web-savvy users and is being redesigned for more basic users who want to start
with a statewide view and drill down to local areas. In the future, there will
be one-stop shopping for travel alerts and slowdowns as well as personalization
and e-mail alerts.
TRIMARC (www.trimarc.org) provides travelers with information for the interstate
highway system within the greater Louisville/Southern Indiana urbanized area.
The cooperation between the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and the Indiana DOT
has led to the success of this Web site. Ease of use is very important, and
developers studied other traveler information Web sites. They designed the site
with a feature to click on signs or cameras for more detailed information. The
Web site complies with accessibility standards and includes interactive maps.
The Web site's most recent enhancement, invisible to users, allows updates
posted on the Web to be sent automatically to the 511 system.
For the second year in a row, the GCM Travel Web site team is a winner,
providing an example of great regional cooperation. The GCM Travel Web site (www.gcmtravel.com)
is developed cooperatively with data from the Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin
DOTs through a state-of-the-art data sharing system that uses a Common Object
Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) interface. With this system, users can link
to information across the entire three-state priority corridor, including
cameras, traffic maps and dynamic message sign messages. Real-time information
on the Illinois Tollway, a link to transit information on the traffic congestion
map and links to the Chicago airports are new features this year. Northwest
Indiana soon will add information gathered from sensors to the Web site, making
available more information to emergency service providers and real-timer
information on transit. A 511 telephone traveler information system will use the
same data sharing system to provide information on the phone.
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 Web site at
www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov.
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