Information on traffic or transit conditions, changes all the time. Speed data and camera images are updated continuously. Camera images are updated as quickly as the camera system allows - every 30 seconds in some cases and every 60 seconds or more in other cases. Information on incidents is updated by agency staff as conditions are reported from the scene. Information on road construction and maintenance is updated as new work is started or completed, or as travel conditions change. Other information, such as construction projects or transit schedule changes, are updated as soon as this information becomes available. Agency contact information changes infrequently.

511 DFW is another information source for travelers that complements radio and TV broadcasts. With 511 DFW you can expect to receive more detailed, current and route-specific traffic information than is provided in a short, general traffic news slot, and you can get the information whenever you need it. Beyond this, the 511 DFW system offers a broad range of information on transit service, transit trip planning, carpooling and many other services not covered by the media. 

Here are the three-digit service numbers adopted by the telephone industry and the Federal Communications Commission: 
211
• Health & Human Services
• Community information and referral services
• Local Government Services
411
• Directory Assistance
• Fee-based telephone number inquiries
511
• Travel and Transportation
• Free. Available in many states
• Allows people with hearing or speech impairments to communicate via a communications assistant
• Telecom Relay Services
811
• Excavation
• Know whats below. Call before you dig
911
• Emergency Services
• Report police, fire or medical emergencies

Incidents disrupt the normal flow of traffic or transit services, including accidents, vehicle breakdowns and road debris. In extreme cases, incidents may require a roadway to be closed. 

Delays also can occur because of special events, construction advisories, bad weather conditions or high traffic volume. 

Ask the 511 DFW phone system about conditions on the alternate route you are considering, or view the roadways for closures, incidents, construction and current traffic speeds. 

Cameras, signs and sensors are installed along roads with the most traffic; primarily on major routes like interstates and state-maintained highways. Traffic patterns are reviewed periodically to determine where additional equipment should be installed. 

These signs are blank when conditions are normal and are used only when there is a problem, such as an accident, disabled vehicle, construction, road closure or another condition. 

The alerts are warnings or information about major incidents affecting the transportation system in the region. To get alerts for a specific region, click on My Customized Alerts to the right of the scrolling banner and choose a region from the drop-down list. 

This is an early-warning system to help find abducted children. AMBER stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. This is a cooperative program among law enforcement, broadcasters, transportation agencies and others to immediately involve the public, especially motorists, in the search for an abducted child. 

If you witness a child abduction, contact your local law enforcement agency or 911 to report it quickly. Note important information, such as the physical characteristics of the child and suspect; the make and model of any vehicles involved (including license plate numbers if possible); and the precise location of the abduction.

My511DFW is a free, personalized service on the phone, mobile apps, and web that allows you to customize 511DFW, your way. With MY511DFW, you build your own 511DFW.org home page or bypass phone menu options to go directly to your information. During registration, you define and save up to six traffic trips, with names like "Home to Work" or "Work to Gym", six transit trips, and identify up to six CCTV traffic cameras you check most often. Then you can access incident information for those trips on the 511DFW phone service 511DFW.org. 

The 511 phone service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

511 DFW does not charge for the call. Calling 511 DFW from a landline phone will cost the same as making a local call. If you use a cell phone, airtime and roaming charges may apply. 

No, this service is only available in the Dallas – Fort Worth region and the surrounding counties. 

The 511 phone system will either identify your telephone prefix when you use a landline phone or the communications tower that your wireless phone is connected to when you call. Knowing your calling location allows the 511 DFW system to provide information specific to that area of the region. 

Yes. Call 877-511DALL (877-511-3255). 

There are several reasons why you might not be able to access the 511 DFW system: 
Your telephone company doesn’t provide access to 511 DFW. Most landline and cellular service carriers in the Dallas – Fort Worth region allow access to the 511 system. If your carrier is not listed, ask it to support 511 DFW.
If your carrier does not support 511 DFW, you can reach 511 DFW via our toll-free number: 877-511DALL (877-511-3255). Cell phone reception is poor. Try calling back from another location. Your phone system at work does not support dialing 511 DFW. Many businesses have their own telephone systems that may need to be reprogrammed to allow direct access to the 511 DFW system. Contact your office manager or telephone system administrator to have them enable access to 511 DFW. Your cell phone is using a cell tower in a neighboring region.When you call from an area near a bordering county or state, your cell phone may use a cell tower in that county, not in the Dallas – Fort Worth region, preventing you from accessing 511 DFW. If this happens, dial our toll-free number, 877-511DALL (877-511-3255).
You are calling from another state. Dialing 511 will connect you with the 511 system in the state from which you are calling, if available. Call the 511DFW toll-free number 877-511DALL (877-511-3255).
You are calling from a pay phone that has not been programmed for 511. Call the 511DFW toll-free number 877-511DALL (877-511-3255). 

The 511 DFW service can be reached through these toll-free numbers: 877-511DALL (877-511-3255). 

511 DFW uses a state-of-the-art voice-recognition system to guide you through the menu options. The system might have a difficulty responding to your request if: 
you said something it is not programmed to recognize at that particular menu; it cannot understand your voice; or there is background noise, such as a radio or people talking near you, that prevents the system from understanding you.

Reduce background noise and speak as clearly as possible in a normal tone of voice. If you are using a cell phone and you have a low signal, try calling back when you get a better one. If you still have problems, use numeric touch-tone commands. 

Hearing-impaired callers can dial 711 to access 511DFW information. 711 is the national three-digit number for access to Telecommunication Relay Services (TRS). Callers dial 711 and ask the operator to connect them to the 511 service. Once connected, the 711 operator acts as a go-between, relaying callers' request for travel information to the 511 system and then providing system responses back to the callers.

Speech-impaired callers can use the touch-tone system to access information from the 511 system. Press "0" at each new menu to hear the touch-tone options, then press the number that matches your choice. Once you learn the touch-tones, there is no need to press zero to hear the list of choices; just enter your selection. 

The 511 DFW Web site has been designed to meet the accessibility policies of the North Central Texas Council of Governments. Most of the material on the Web site will be in HTML or ASCII (plain text) formats. However, some of the files may require users to have installed the following specific software or plug-ins to interpret the page content: Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF), Adobe Flash and Microsoft Office. 

The 511 DFW phone service is an automated, interactive voice system driven by the user's voice or phone keys. Voice recordings will give the latest computerized information. There are options to transfer to a specific transportation agency for additional information not offered directly through the 511 DFW phone system. 

Say, "Help" or "What are my choices?" at any time to hear your options for the current menu. To return to a previous menu, say, "Go back." To start over, say "Main Menu."

Interrupt the System (barge-in). Once you know what questions will be asked, you can answer them as soon as the system starts asking them. You do not need to wait until the end of a question before answering.
Use Voice Command Shortcuts or Touch Tone Keys Shortcuts are voice commands that bypass a menu and take you directly to your choice.
Say
Press
Action

Help,What are my choices?
0
Lists of all choices for the current menu.
Main Menu
*
States Main Menu options.
Repeat
NA
Repeats the last question or list of choices.
StopCancel Go Back
Halts the system from listing menu options and goes back to the previous menu.
Goodbye
NA
Ends the call.

Main Menu Choices
Just press "0" at each menu to hear menu choices and touch tone codes.
Say
Press
What it Does
Traffic
1
Get information about closures and major incidents on the facilities you select.
Public Transportation
2
Link to a public transportation service or learn about current transit incidents.
Paratransit
3
Connect to a service provider.
Ride share
4
Connect to a ride-sharing service.
Airports
5
Connect to an airport or airport access service.
Other 511 Systems
Depends
Switch Regions
Depends
77
Give us your feedback.

Type of Information
Phone
Web
Transit conditions
Transit trip planner
Public transportation providers
Riding a bus or train with your bike

Here are the public transportation services covered by 511DFW:

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART)
Trinity Metro
Denton County Transportation Authority (DCTA)

With 511 DFW you can find out about services within your area of interest. The phone system will transfer your call to an operator if you would like. 

Absolutely. The Transit Trip Planner uses Google Auto-Complete to help you identify the correct address. You can also click on the map to indicate the approximate origin and destination of your trip. Zoom in, as needed, to see more street detail. 

After you have specified where your trip is starting and ending, click on Plan Your Trip. The results will pop up in a new window, showing
Starting point
Ending point
Details on where to board the service
Date and start time and trip duration
Detailed instructions and duration of each leg of your trip (if applicable)
Information on any current incidents affecting service

Click on Print Itinerary at the bottom to get a printer-friendly version of the instructions. 

Yes. When viewing your itinerary click on the walking map icon on the right side of the screen. Another window will open a map window showing the starting point of your trip and where you will pick up the service as well as proving you with detailed directions. Print the map and directions to carry with you. 

After you tell the 511 DFW phone system which agency you want, it will confirm your request by repeating the agency's name. If you select an agency and the system reads back a different name, right away say "Stop," "Go Back" or Press 1 to stop the transfer and choose again. If you did not catch this in time, call back and try again. 

Yes. Any computer that has access to the Internet, a compatible browser and security settings to allow cookies will be able to use the 511 DFW Web site. 

511 DFW has been tested with Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari.

Cookies are a small amount of data sent to your Web browser from a web server and stored on your computer. They are only used to save your latest map view which can save you navigation time when you visit 511DFW.org the next time. The cookies used by our 511 DFW system do not contain any personal information about you and the information in them cannot be accessed by other Web sites. 

Yes. The first time you visit, these pages will load slowly, so be patient. Once the maps have loaded on your computer, your next visit should be quicker. Other things you can do to improve performance are:

Select only one or a limited number of information categories. The more you pick, the longer it will take to display all icons on the map.
Stick with the Google Map view (instead of Satellite or Hybrid).
Do not view camera images (these take the longest time to load). 

Information/Category
Icon
Information Shown

Weather Alerts
Click on the weather icon to get the weather forecast for the next seven days.
Click on the alert icon to see the latest weather alert issued by the NWS (if an alert is in effect) and time the alert was issued or updated.

Incidents
An incident describes something that disrupts traffic or transit flow, traffic, such as an accident, vehicle breakdown or road debris. Move your mouse over the icon to display the location of an incident. Click on the icon for detailed information including the time of the last update.

Special Events
Special Events are planned activities such as concerts, bicycle races, festivals, fairs, etc. that impact traffic. Advisory messages present the name of the event, date, time, location and traffic impacts.

Construction
Icons show active traffic and transit construction projects. Mouse-over an icon for information on project location. Click on it to learn more about traffic impacts, timing and duration.

Cameras
View pictures of current traffic conditions from the location chosen.Mouse-over a camera icon for a description of the camera’s location.Click on it to display the camera image, location, operating agency logo and camera direction.

Speeds
Select Speeds to see the average speed of traffic at roadside traffic detectors locations.Colored dots show detector locations and speed range of traffic. Mouse-over a dot to get information on location, traffic level, average traffic speed and time of the last update.

Message Signs
View text from Message Signs
Mouse-over a message sign to get its location, message content, and time of the last update.

General Info
View general information that may impact traffic (i.e. a political demonstration).

The map starts out with a view of the whole state. Use the Zoom To feature to jump to a metro area chosen from the drop down list (Zoom To is located immediately above the map). Otherwise, use Google's map navigation buttons: To Change Location: Arrows - Click the appropriate arrow buttons to move the view north, south, east or west. Click to return to your original view. Mouse - Depress the left mouse button and drag the map to pan to a new area. To Change Zoom Level: Zoom In - Click to zoom in on the center of the map. Zoom Out - Click to zoom out. Zoom Slider - Drag the zoom slider up or down to zoom in or out incrementally. 

Select this option to have 511 DFW remember your current; map view; (geographic area and zoom level) for your next visit. This will save you map navigation time if you typically look at the same area when you visit 511 DFW. 'Save My Map View' remembers your map view by storing a 'cookie' on your computer for the 511 DFW Web site -- a small amount of data retrieved by our Web server to show your personalized map view. 

After an accident has been entered into the system, it is immediately available to the public. 

All major accidents and other events reported to us that occur on the state highway system will be included in the 511 DFW system; however, there may be some delay getting accurate information from transportation employees or other first responders at the incident scene. Accidents that may not cause major disruption may not be included, particularly if they occur on local roads. 

To improve performance, select only the information categories you really want. The more legend items you select, the longer it will take to display icons on the map.
You also can speed up the rate of information delivery by sticking with the Google Map view (instead of Satellite or Hybrid). This is particularly true if you are going to pan the map (move location). 

My511DFW is a free, personalized service on the phone, mobile apps, and web that allows you to customize 511DFW, your way. With My511DFW, you build your own 511DFW.org home page or bypass phone menu options to go directly to your information. During registration, you define and save up to six traffic trips, with names like "Home to Work" or "Work to Gym", six transit trips, and identify up to six CCTV traffic cameras you check most often. Then you can access incident information for those trips on the 511DFW phone service 511DFW.org and the 511DFW Mobile Apps. 

My511DFW is the same as using 511DFW. It is free to sign up and use on the Web. It is free on your landline phone.  If you use a cell phone, airtime and roaming charges may apply. 

Contact us to report problems. 

Contact us to provide us with your thoughts and suggestions for improving the system.  

The My511DFW service covers the same geographic areas as covered by the current 511DFW Traffic and 511DFW Transit systems. See the 511DFW Traffic and Transit Conditions Map for more information.

You can choose up to six different camera views, and nickname them, for display on your My511DFW home page. 

Yes, within the maximum length of a camera name of 30 characters. 

Due to bandwidth issues, only camera image snapshots are currently available. 

There may be times when a camera feed will be taken off-line for maintenance, technical difficulties, or due to privacy concerns during incidents and emergencies. There are other possible causes for lack of images, including incorrectly configured software on your computer. It may be necessary to clear the browser cache. If you are still experiencing difficulties, please Contact us. 

Driving time information is real-time and is updated as conditions change on the roadway. However, you will only see changes to your personalized driving times trips based on the refresh rate you have selected. 

Each trip consists of a number of roadways defined for the trip. Driving times for each segment of the trip are calculated and then combined to create the overall total driving time for the trip. 

Yes, you can choose an origin and destination name from the options in the pull-down menu. We do not have the capability for the system to recognize custom names, however, you should find the most common trip origin and destination names in the system. 

Yes. You can edit your saved information at anytime and change, delete or add a new trip.

The system will not provide incident information about a trip unless you request the roadways associated with that trip. If you know an alternate route, you may want to make that one of your six trips.

Yes. During registration, you can save up to three phone numbers that 511DFW will recognize. When calling 511DFW, the phone system recognizes My511DFW users via caller ID and immediately asks for the name of a saved trip, set up during My511DFW registration (e.g. "Home to Work"). My511DFW will respond with current traffic information for your trip. If your phone number has caller ID blocked, you must say, "My 5-1-1" at the Main Menu. The system will respond by asking you to enter your 10-digit phone number. Upon recognition, My511DFW will ask for one of your trip names and provide the current traffic information. 

Currently, you can access traffic and transit conditions, and where available, current driving times for your saved trips via the My511DFW feature in the 511DFW phone system by providing a trip name that you saved during registration (e.g. "Home to Work"). 

Some businesses have an internal switching network and the number connecting the call on the outside may differ from your desk line. Say "My 5-1-1" at the Main Menu and verbally speak the number for your account to access your preferences. You can also use the touch tone to enter your phone number. 

Anyone can register for the My511DFW service. All you need is a valid e-mail address, at least one phone number, and to agree to the Terms and Conditions of the My511DFW service. 

We need your e-mail address to identify you in the system and to communicate with you to verify the account. Your information is kept secure and is never shared with anyone outside of the My511DFW services. You can read our privacy policy. 

The confirmation e-mail may have been incorrectly identified as SPAM by your e-mail system. Check your junk e-mail folder to see if this has happened. If you don't find it there, you may have entered your e-mail address incorrectly. If your e-mail address was entered correctly, then you can log into your account and follow the instructions to resend the confirmation to you by the My511 service. 

You can retrieve your password if you know the user ID you used when you registered. Click on the Forgot your password? link in the sign-in box on the My511DFW welcome page. There is no option to retrieve a forgotten user ID. 

Yes, please contact the 511DFW Feedback team feedback@511dfw.org with an e-mail requesting your My511DFW account be removed. Please include 'Unsubscribe' in your subject line and your username and at least one phone number associated with your account in the email, and a 511DFW associate will remove your My511DFW account. When you choose to be removed from the My511DFW service, you will no longer be able to access your personalized My511DFW home page or use the My511DFW features on the 511DFW phone system unless you register again. 

If your link is not working, try to copy and paste it into a new browser window. If it still is not working, please contact us for assistance. 

My511DFW has been tested with Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari.

Yes. Any computer that has access to the Internet, a compatible browser, and security settings to allow cookies will be able to access the My511DFW service on the web. 

The "Remember me" feature can be used so that you do not have to log in every time; simply check the box next time you sign in. Your browser security settings need to allow for cookies. If the computer you are using is a shared computer, such as one at a library, it is best not to set the "Remember me" feature. 

There may be times when a camera feed is unavailable due to technical difficulties. There are other possible causes for lack of images, including incorrectly configured software on your computer. It may be necessary to clear the browser cache. If you are still experiencing difficulties, please Contact us. 

There are several reasons why you may not be recognized as a My511DFW user when calling the 511DFW phone system. These include: 1) calling from a phone other than one you identified during registration, 2) your caller ID is blocked and cannot be recognized by the system, or 3) a technical issue associated with your registration for the phone system has occurred. If your caller ID is blocked, you will have to say "My 511" at the 511DFW Main Menu and then type in your 10-digit phone number when prompted. If you continue to experience this problem, please Contact us to contact 511DFW for assistance. 

The "Remember me" feature utilizes cookies that are stored locally on your computer. This means that you will have to click "Remember me" for each computer you use. 

My511DFW displays trips on your home page in alphabetical order, so your most recently added trip is not necessarily at the bottom of your trip list. Check your trip list again and search alphabetically for your trip name. If you still do not see your saved trip, please Contact us. 

The confirmation e-mail has been designed to be accepted by spam filters. However, with high security systems, your spam filter might place the confirmation e-mail in a bulk or junk folder, or it might not accept the e-mail at all. To have your confirmation e-mail resent to you, sign in, and you will be directed to the "Unverified User" page where you can request a new confirmation e-mail.


If after requesting a new confirmation e-mail and checking your bulk/junk folder you still do not have the confirmation e-mail, we suggest: 


1. You or your system administrator add "no-reply@511dfw.org" as an accepted address to your spam filter. 


2. Create a new e-mail address with Gmail or Yahoo or some other popular e-mail system. We know these systems accept My511DFW e-mails, but some place them in the junk folder so be sure to look there.