Q: What are these free alerts?
A: Messages about traffic conditions that are e-mailed to you.
Traffic incidents, construction projects, and weather are all monitored at the
UDOT TOC (Traffic Operations Center.) We have created this free service
that allows you to define what type of alerts you want to monitor, and when you
want to be notified. You can subscribe, add new profiles, change and
customize your existing settings, and unsubscribe any time you want.
Q: How does it work?
A: The alert messages are gathered from the ATMS (Advanced Traffic
Management System). Information is collected from the TOC operators,
cameras, highway sensors, weather stations, etc, and used by the ATMS.
This Alerts service is an automated system that monitors information about
traffic incidents and e-mails messages to subscribers. You create
individual profiles defining when you want to receive the messages, and what
type of messages you want to receive. This system then sends you messages
matching your defined profile.
Q: What do I get?
A: Messages e-mailed to you within the timeframes that you
specify. You can specify multiple destinations if you have more than one
e-mail account, or even if you have devices that can receive e-mail messages.
Q: Why would I want to sign up?
A: This is a free service aimed to keep you informed about traffic
conditions that affect your driving experience.
Q: How do I sign up?
A: First, create a Main Contact user account.
Second, create Alert Profiles defining each e-mail address for which you wish to receive alerts. You may have an e-mail address that you primarily use at home, and you may have a different e-mail address at work. You may have devices like cell phones or pagers that can receive e-mail messages.
You need to add and define an Alert Profile for each of these individual e-mail address. This is because your information needs may be different for each profile. At your home e-mail address, you may wish to be notified only in early morning or late evening hours. At your work e-mail address, you may not want to receive messages on the weekends. Etc, etc.
Q: What is an Alert Profile?
A: A group of settings that define the following things:
* Destination - where should we e-mail the messages?
* Size of message - for regular e-mail you may want to have as much
information as is available, but for other devices such as pagers and cell
phones, you may wish to have only an abbreviated message.
* Timeframe - When do you want to be notified (what time of day as well
as which days of the week)
* Impact levels - Do you want to receive information about all the
incidents, even those that have a small impact on traffic, or do you only want
to be notified when the impact to traffic flow is very severe?
* Follow-up - Do you want to be notified when incidents are cleared, or
even when the status changes, or do you just want to know when there has been an
incident?
You can choose and customize these settings to suit your needs and circumstance.
Q: How much does it cost?
A: This is a free service provided by the Utah Department of
Transportation's Traffic Operations Center.
Q: What is my User ID?
A: Choose a User ID that you can remember when you want to return to
customize your Alert Profile settings. Use a name, nickname, etc. It
cannot be blank, and it can be up to 10 characters long. The User ID must
be unique. If you choose one that has already been used, the system will
notify you, and you will need to choose another.
Q: What is my Password?
A: Make up a password. The length can be up to 10 characters
long. You MAY choose to leave password BLANK. In the future, you
will only be asked for User ID when logging in. This is obviously less
secure - anybody that might guess you User ID could get in and make changes to
your custom settings. But, we want the system to be easy and convenient
for you to use, so you get to decide.
If you leave both the password and password verification fields blank, then the system won't require a password from you in the future. If you do specify a password, then you will need to re-type it for verification.
Q: What is my Main Email Address?
A:
What is an Alert Profile? How is it different from my CommuterLink User ID?
What is the Message Destination?
What is the Message Size? Why are there options of different Message Sizes?
What is a Notification Timeframe? How do I select notification timeframes that meet my needs?
What is the Traffic Impact Level? How do I know which Impact Level is right for me?
What is Incident Follow-Up?
What if I forget my User ID or Password?