New IT System in Bay Area Gets Award

SAN FRANCISCO---The International Road Federation has named the San Francisco Bay Area's 511 TravInfo system the recipient of a 2005 IRF Global Road Achievement Award in the traffic management and intelligent transportation category. The award was presented at the IRF's 15th World Meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.

Developed and operated by PB Farradyne for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area 511 system was called the most advanced in the United States.

Launched in December 2002, 511 TravInfo provides information toll-free on the telephone at 511 and on the Internet at www.511.org. Offering a litany of services, the system features on-demand information about traffic conditions and incidents on Bay Area freeways and highways; route, fare, schedule and trip planning information for dozens of transit and para-transit operators; and information on carpooling, vanpooling and bicycling.

Future plans call for the Bay Area's 511 telephone system to provide point-to-point travel times on specific routes based on current information, and for the 511 traffic Web site to provide a graphical view of current traffic conditions; alerts about incidents, construction and events; and route travel times.

MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

PB Farradyne is part of the Parsons Brinckerhoff group of companies. Founded in 1885, Parsons Brinckerhoff provides multidisciplinary services for transportation, power, buildings and environmental projects.