SPOKANE, Wash. — Starting Friday, Washington drivers will have to use a different way to find out information about roads. The Washington State Department of Transportation is deactivating the 511 line.
The department says the decision was made to end it because less people are using the service. Washington State Department of Transportation spokesman, Ryan Overton said, “At its peak there were roughly 2.2 million users a year. That has steadily declined as technology has changed. More people are visiting our app or our website, getting that information in real time, so now we see about 300,000 users."
511 gave drivers information about traffic, crashes, weather, mountain passes and ferries. WSDOT was spending $150,000 a year to keep 511 up and running. The department says that money will not go back into the budget for other things.
Just because 511 is going away, drivers won’t be left in the dark. You can get all of the information you need from WSDOT’s website, app, email alerts, WSDOT social media or radio stations 530 AM and 1610 AM. If you don’t have a smartphone or internet, you can call the Spokane WSDOT office at 509-244-5992.
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