ITS firms form national 511 alliance

Four ITS firms announced Tuesday the formation of a national alliance to provide 511 traveler information telephone services to state and local agencies. The firms, PBS&J, SmartRoute Systems (SRS)/Westwood One, Tele Atlas and Meteorlogix, will offer comprehensive content, full integration of existing ITS services and project management capabilities, according to the companies. The alliance formation was announced during the Intelligent Transportation Society of America Annual Meeting in Minneapolis. Roles each company will play in the alliance include: PBS&J- Project management, project design, documentation and telecommunications carrier coordination. SRS/Westwood One- National traffic content, operations, 511 interactive voice response telephone system implementation. Tele Atlas- Map databases, interface development, traffic workstations, traveler information servers, Web sites and traffic-television products. Meteorlogix- Travel-related weather information, highly accurate travel times and real-time alerting capabilities. The companies are part of the 511 Deployment Coalition, a consortium of government agencies and private companies working to bring 511 services to U.S. markets.