Travel Midwest Site News

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The www.gcmtravel.com web site has been renamed to www.travelmidwest.com.  The new web site includes several new  features including:

• A truckers report,
• Bigger maps with collapsible navigator, layer and zoom controls, legend and a new info viewer, and
• Easier to read reports.

We hope you enjoy the web site's new look and feel.

Travelmidwest.com has always displayed information on arterial road construction and traffic incidents.  With the addition of information from the City of Chicago and Lake County, Illinois, the Gateway Traveler Information System and travelmidwest.com website now contain congestion information on arterial streets to supplement the incident and construction data.

 Road congestion for the City of Chicago uses data from its Traffic Tracker application.  The Traffic Tracker uses GPS-equipped CTA buses to determine congestion on the route.  The speed of the buses is taken as a reasonable indication of the overall flow of traffic on these routes.

Congestion data on arterial roads in Lake County, Illinois, is supplied by the Lake County Passage system.  A mix of traffic probe types provides the raw data for the algorithms used to compute the relative congestion.

The congestion levels are determined by traffic speeds.  Since the speed limit on arterial streets is lower than those on expressways, the congestion levels are adjusted accordingly.  As an example, a speed which would signify heavy congestion on an expressway represents close to free flowing conditions on an arterial road.

Arterial information may be added to the map or removed from the map by toggling the map controls.  This allows website users to customize the map features based on their specific traveler information needs.

On November 4th, 2010, the Travel Midwest Truckers Report won the ITS Midwest Project of the Year award.  While commercial vehicles provide a significant portion of the traffic on both interstates and arterials in the Travel Midwest area, there was no single location where the unique data needs of the trucking community were addressed. As a result, it was determined that the revised Travelmidwest.com web site should have a section addressing the unique commercial carrier needs. This section is titled the Travel Midwest Truckers Report.

Gateway Traveler Information System Honored as ITS-Midwest 2009 Project of the Year At its 2009 Annual Meeting held in Indianapolis, Indiana; the Intelligent Transportation Society-Midwest Chapter composed of the state societies in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio honored the Gateway Traveler Information System website and related operations as ITS-Midwest Project of the Year.

As regular visitors to the site can attest, the scope of available information has been dramatically increased as the Gateway expanded staff for 24/7/365 coverage. Besides the addition of Michigan to the coverage area, the Gateway now boasts information from the Mississippi River to the Ohio border in the four state (Illinois-Indiana-Michigan-Wisconsin) coverage area.

The roadwork and incident information are augmented by impacts from special events such as parades, marathons, and other celebrations. The data on area Interstates and limited access highways is supplemented by arterial information. Though congestion and travel times are not available for these arterials, construction and incidents resulting in blockage are displayed to give drivers in the area the most comprehensive picture of traffic conditions and thereby aid them in making truly informed travel choices.

In an effort to improve services that we provide to our valued customers and users, the Gateway Traveler Information System has implemented a user survey. The survey asks about your preferences in using the TravelMidwest web site and the Illinois Traffic Alert System and seeks input from you on which new features that you would like to see on the site. The survey is completely anonymous and takes less than two minutes to complete. The results will help us to focus our ongoing efforts on the features that our users find most useful. Please take a moment to fill out our User Survey and help us to provide better service. In addition, feel free to send any other comments you have about the site to Webmaster.

The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and its partner, the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), have developed the Illinois Traffic Alert System. You may register to receive customized traffic reports containing vehicle speeds, travel times, construction, congestion and incident information through your e-mail inbox, cell phone text messaging or other e-mail enabled mobile device. The system is initially being deployed in the Chicagoland area as part of IDOT's congestion mitigation effort. When you register, follow the instructions in order to:

1. Choose the roadway segments about which you want to be notified
2. Select the two times of day when you want to receive alerts
3. Select the days of the week you want to receive alerts
4. Customize alerts so you will receive them only if the average speed on the road is below what you select
5. Customize the type of data you want to receive: incidents, construction, congestion and/or travel times