Wednesday, February 20, 2019

My Kansas 511: More ways to get you the information you need to travel



By Tom Hein,
Wichita Public Affairs Manager 

Most travelers are familiar with the 511 phone resource, the national roadway information system initiated by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration and operating in 35 states (including Kansas). But many are not aware that alerts on highway closures or other situations that might affect a trip or daily commute can be pushed directly to their smartphone or home computer.

My Kansas 511 is a free service providing drivers with up-to-the-minute information via alerts by email or text messages. To subscribe to the service, create an account at www.safetravelusa.com/ks/login.

You can now tailor this service to your needs, choosing days of the week and time slots that you want alerts to be sent. Then you will choose your preferences for notification on flooded roadways, highway closures, severe weather conditions or specific traffic alerts, like the ones offered by WICHway, Wichita’s intelligent transportation system management center.

Next you can choose the highways for which you need information. Because Kansas highways often traverse the entire state, you can choose only those segments that apply to your travels.

After setting your parameters, the service will push out relevant information when an event or problem occurs. With your newly created My Kansas 511 account, you can tweak these settings so that you’re never overwhelmed with too much information. This can happen during volatile spring weather if you choose to receive, for instance, all Kansas thunderstorm warnings.

Give the service a trial run – you can always unsubscribe. And of course, we advise drivers to check these messages only when they are NOT actively driving.

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