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Popular Driving Routes (web) FAQs.

Q. What is the “Popular Driving Routes” widget?

511NJ continues to expand and customize data in an effort to provide real time travel information to the motoring public. Web visitors can now get real time travel times along major highways that include the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, Atlantic City Expressway, I-80, I-78, I-287, I-295 as well as the I-76/NJ42 freeway.

The highways are broken down into segments that coincide with commuting patterns as well as main intersections.

Information is provided by direction, distance between intersections, as well as the travel time for each link.

Q. How does it work?

In the Popular Driving Routes widget, simply click the “down arrow” in the upper right hand corner of the widget. Then, choose the highway and direction you will be traveling. The list will re-populate with real time travel times and mileage distances for the chosen highway and direction between major intersections along that highway.

For example:

Q. How often is the data refreshed?

The data is updated every 1-2 minutes.

Q. How are the travel times calculated?

511NJ has leveraged its investment in real-time travel time data collection to develop a mathematical equation that calculates the time it takes to travel a specific distance between two locations.

Q. Why do you provide travel times to select intersections only?

The “Popular Driving Routes” widget on the web, is the first step in the development of a more robust set of real time travel times.

We will also be providing the same information on the 511NJ phone system by the end of the year.

Visit us often as we will be adding and changing content frequently.

“Mega Projects” Widget

511NJ also consolidated all the “Mega Projects” into one widget. We have also added the construction projects on I-287, I-78 and NJ 36 Highlands Bridge Rehabilitation project.

By clicking the down arrow next to the project name, web visitors can toggle between projects for a quick glance at the travel times through the construction projects.

If they would like to see more information about the project or to view the interactive map, simply click on the “View map and Incidents” link and a map of the overall project will appear.

The project limits will appear in the shaded block area of the map.

The left column will show a more granular list of travel times through the project. In addition, there will be a list of any incidents, accidents, congestion or construction going on in and around the work zone.

All information displayed in this widget and map is real time and updated every one to 2 minutes.

Q. Why does the Popular Travel Routes widget show the travel time as “Unavailable”?

Numerous data sources are used to produce travel times. When there is insufficient data, or, a data feed is interrupted, the system will display a message of “Unavailable.”

In addition, between the hours of approximately 10 pm and 5 am, often there is not enough real time data to create an accurate travel time. Therefore, when this occurs, the “Unavailable” travel time will be posted.

About 511NJ

The www.511NJ.org website was designed to complement the 511NJ telephone service. It provides an easy, user friendly way for commuters to see where incidents, accidents, congestion and events like weather and construction are happening before they leave their office or home. 511NJ.org employs interactive widgets, as well as the more traditional tabs across the top of the page, to interact with and access the region’s transportation information. Below is a summary of the features and functions of the 511NJ widgets, followed by a description of the site menu tabs and finally, answers to some general 511NJ website frequently asked questions (FAQs).

The 511NJ partner agencies appreciate your interest in 511NJ and look forward to hearing from you on additional functions or capabilities you would like to see.

The Camera widget provides a scrolling feature of the region's traffic cameras. Users can also select a particular camera by clicking on the downward facing arrow located near the right corner of the widget.

The Severity Alert widget provides a listing of major events occurring throughout New Jersey. Typically, these are weather-related events affecting traffic such as salting and plowing, but the Severity Alert can also be activated for other Public Safety and transportation related events, such as Amber Alerts. This widget only appears when a 511NJ partner agency has identified a major event. To help locate where the event is occurring, you can click on the event in the Severity Alert widget and it will automatically orient the map widget to this event.

The My 511NJ Alerts widget allows existing My NJ511 subscribers an easy way to log-in and log-out. The My 511NJ Alerts widget also contains a sign up link to help motorists quickly access the My NJ511 subscription page in order to begin receiving customized alerts. To help you log-in quickly, the widget also contains a "remember me" box that you can select. Note, the widget will change from "My NJ 511 Alerts Log In" to "My NJ Alerts Log Out" automatically depending on your current log-in/log-out status.

The NJ511 Interactive Map widget allows users to pan and zoom around the region's roadway network, capturing a quick glance of the current conditions. Among the features of the map are:

The Zoom tool located at the bottom of the widget allows users to zoom in and out.
The various map layers (incidents, congestion, construction, detours, satellite view, traffic cameras, special-events, weather-related event and full-map view) identified by icons located on the upper right portion of the widget may be toggled on and off.
Panning the map by pressing the right mouse key and moving the map.

The full page view is also accessible from the Traffic Menu tab. This full-page view provides you with a map legend to better understand the meaning of the color coding for current roadway conditions as well as the icons inserted om the map.

The Current Incidents widget provides users with a quick glance at what is affecting the region's roadway network. Like the Severity Alert widget, users can click on the text of the incident and the NJ511 Map widget automatically orient itself to that incident.

The Transit Trip Planner widget provides users with easy access to Google's on-line transit trip planner. New Jersey TRANSIT has coordinated with Google to ensure that all of its routes are available through this tool.

Home Tab

The Home Tab provides users with some background information about the services both available and planned as well as links to the 511NJ Partner Agencies. Users can also supply the 511NJ Partners with feedback and comments on the system. The 511NJ partners are always looking for ways to improve the service.

Traffic Tab

The Traffic Tab offer the following tools to the 511NJ users:

View Map - This utility offers users the opportunity to view the 511NJ Traffic Map in a full-screen view.
View List - This tool offers users a way to receive a complete list of all events (Incidents, Construction, and Special Events) that appear on the 511NJ Traffic Map. This list is available for users how may be visually impaired or those who are just want to read through a list of traffic events in New Jersey. Additionally, users can look for upcoming Construction and Special Events that may affect their travel in order make appropriate travel plans. Users can sort the listing of events in a number of ways by clicking on the title of a column. Each sorts in its own specific way.

Sorting by Activity Type: groups and orders the events by type in the following order:

weather-related events

incidents

congestion

construction

detours

special events

Sorting by Event Type: alphabetically sorts the specific event types (e.g., accident, delays, heavy traffic, overturned vehicle)

Sorting by Facility: alphabetically sorts by the primary facility that is affected (e.g., Garden State Parkway, New Jersey Turnpike, NJ 73)

Description: alphabetically sorts by the description of the event

Within each sorted list, the events are "sub-sorted" by the latest updated date and time.

Users can also use the search box to enter and search for text found in the description column. This allows you to refine your search even further once you've sorted your list. An example of this would be searching for all events that contain the word "shoulder" in the description. This search narrows the list to only those events that are affecting the shoulders of facilities.

Cameras - This allows users to quickly select from a list of New Jersey Interstates, the New Jersey Turnpike, and the Garden State Parkway and view these cameras overlaid on a map by simply mousing over the camera icon.
Bridge & Tunnel Travel Times - Users can quickly view travel times on major crossings (bridges and tunnels) between New Jersey and the New York City Metro area. Additional travel time information will be coming soon.

Cameras Tab

The Camera images page is one of the most requested features of 511NJ. Users can view an extensive list of cameras and their approximate locations on the map overlay. Simply click on the camera name from the list or mouse over the camera icon on the map and the most recent camera image will appear on this screen. Images on this page are refreshed approximately every 30 seconds.

511NJ Public Website Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q. What is a Widget?

A. A widget is self-contained window or tool that can be placed, or moved, anywhere on the 511NJ.org home page. All of the tools and features on the 511NJ.org website, including the main traffic map, are widgets. When you visit the site, you will notice that every element of the web page has a box around it. You can freely move these around on the home page, minimize them (by clicking on the "^" located at the top of each widget box, or remove them entirely (by clicking on the "X").

This allows you to personalize the website to meet your needs, moving the 511NJ widgets you use the most to the top of the screen and minimizing or deleting the ones you don't use. Transit users, for example, may want to move the transit trip planner widget to the top of the page. Through the use of cookies, 511NJ.org remembers the position you placed the widgets on the home page so that each time you return to the website, 511NJ.org looks exactly you left it the last you you visited the page. Over time, we will introduce new 511NJ widgets to help you get around the state of New Jersey safely and efficiently. Stay tuned!

Q. What browser versions does the 511NJ site support?
A. The 511NJ .org site is designed to work with current and immediate past versions of Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox, Chrome, and Safari.

Q. How do I expand the traffic map?
A. You can increase the size of the 511NJ traffic map by clicking on the "gear" in the upper right corner of the Map widget or byselecting "map view" from the Traffic tab.

Q. How are the different congestion levels shown in the Traffic Congestion layer translated into speeds?
A. Traffic Conditions are delineated by color bands along the roadways. Each color denotes a different level of congestion. Thefollowing table shows the defined congestion levels displayed in the Traffic Congestion legend. Note that the speed ranges are calculated as a percentage of the speed limit for each roadway segment. The "No Data" congestion level is used to indicate roadways for which there is no information currently available that would allow a congestion level to be determined.

Congestion Level	% of Speed Limit	Speeds based on a speed limit of 55 MPH	Speeds based on a speed limit of 65 MPH	Default Color
Stop and Go	0-31	0-17 MPH	0-20 MPH	Red
Heavy Traffic	32-62	18-34 MPH	21-40 MPH	Orange
Moderate Traffic	63-92	35-50 MPH	41-50 MPH	Yellow
Free Flow	93-100(+)	51-55 MPH	61-65 MPH	Green
No Data	N/A	N/A	N./A	Grey

Q. What are cookies and why are session cookies used on the 511NJ website?
A. Cookies are a small amount of data sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. 511NJ.orguses session cookies and persistent cookies. Session cookies expire after the user exits the website, or shortly thereafter, and are not generally considered to be a privacy or security concern. Persistent cookies tend to have a longer life-span and are used to retain user session information such as settings and configuration parameters. Cookies are unique to each website and information in them cannot be accessed by other websites. The cookies utilized by 511NJ.org do not provide any personal information about the user and are only used to enhance the user's experience while using the website.