The New York State Department of Transportation implemented 511 New York (511NY) in 2008 as a free, comprehensive travel information system geared to meet the multimodal needs of commuters, long-distance and local travelers, tourists and commercial-vehicle operators, by providing up-to-the-minute, comprehensive transportation information.

Due to the fiscal constraints we’ve all faced in the past couple of years, the Department has had limited opportunities to get the word out to the public about these services. We would appreciate your assistance in cross-promoting 511NY by placing a link on your government webpage. The 511NY logo and style guide are available through the Developer Resource Page (under the 511NY Information Partners heading) if you would like to provide a link to the 511NY services from your website. The page preferences and alert ticker can be selected according to the region of the state you’re in, for a more personalized experience.

A number of enhancements have been made in the past two years, and 511NY now provides information to users via the web (511ny.org), e-mail notification (TransAlerts), by phone (5-1-1), standard mobile device (511ny.mobi), mobile applications for BlackBerry, Google Android, and Apple iPhone, in a customizable format through My511NY (511ny.org/my511ny), via Social Media forums (Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter), and through developer friendly XML feeds. The mobile applications provide traffic and transit conditions with weather options, mobile links, and the popular 511NY Transit Trip Planner with geographical location awareness. There have been over 10,000 mobile application downloads since their release in late 2010.

511NY provides traffic and transit condition information, call transfers to nearly 350 transportation agencies for customer service connections, driving times for Long Island, over 900 CCTV traffic cameras, travel links, and a comprehensive statewide transit trip planner that includes over 50 operators’ fixed route transit schedules from across New York State, including subways, buses, ferries, commuter bus and rail, Amtrak, and other intercity bus lines, in addition to schedules for services provided between Connecticut, New Jersey and New York.

NYSDOT also released a number of data feeds for open source use through a Developer Forum on the 511NY page (http://www.511ny.org/developer.aspx). The data feeds include real-time highway incident and construction information, 900+ CCTV highway cameras, bridge and parkway restriction information for commercial vehicles, and a number of transit operator’s schedule data. Google maps began integrating incident information from the 511NY data feeds into their Traffic page in 2010, enhancing our ability to reach commuters and travelers through a number of sources.

For more information, please visit 511ny.org.

Mary Harding

511NY Outreach Coordinator

NYS Department of Transportation

50 Wolf Road

Albany, NY 12232

518-485-8291

mharding@dot.state.ny.us