Tom Warne Report, 1 June 2013
ST. LOUIS – With other tools now at its disposal, the Missouri Department of Transportation has chosen to end its ‘511′ traveler information system in the St. Louis area, as of June 1. The service, which had been provided to the department at no charge, is ending because the company providing the service can no longer do so.
“We began ‘511′ six years ago in advance of the closure of I-64 for its reconstruction,” said Tom Blair, assistant district engineer for St. Louis. “We wanted a tool to help maintain mobility throughout the region, and it worked quite well.”
Since that time, MoDOT has developed or improved a number of statewide tools that provide the same types of traveler information: the Traveler Information Map on the department’s website, a mobile application of the same map, Gateway Guide website and associated mobile application, subscription text alerts and e-mail updates of traffic information, additional electronic message boards on interstate highways, etc. The St. Louis region is also served by the Gateway Guide traffic management center and MoDOT’s 24-hour customer service center – 1-888-ASK-MoDOT (275-6636).
“We now have all of these other tools that have proven to be quite effective,” Blair added.
The equipment and programming for ‘511′ service for St. Louis will remain, in case the department is able to reactivate the service at a later time. The department will be covering or removing ‘511′ signs and storing them. ‘511′ calls will go to a recorded line, where callers will be asked to check out MoDOT’s Gateway Guide on-line or on their smart phones.
Frankly, this is just the beginning of the end for “511.” It was a good tool for a long time but the advances in technology and mobile computing have rendered it less effective than some of the other tools available. I would predict that MoDOT never returns to it. They are an agency that is agile and effective in the implementation of systems to communicate with their customers and will more than fill the void of information. TW