W.Y.D.O.T.’s website was getting great traffic last year as people repeatedly checked the state’s go-to road information resource for closures and road conditions.
The Wyoming Department of Transportation’s 511 travel website registered about 2.2 billion site visits in 2022.
“This is by far the most hits in a calendar year since the department started tracking them,” said Vince Garcia, program manager for the Global Information Systems/Intelligent Transportation System program at W.Y.D.O.T.
The website shows forecasted and real-time weather-related road impacts and data directly from W.Y.D.O.T. weather sensors, plow operators, and Wyoming Highway Patrol Troopers, all combined into one convenient tool for travelers.
The top visited pages within the site in 2022 were the Closures and Advisories page, followed closely by the I-80 web cameras.
“Every year, we try to improve the 511 tools and bring more travel information to the public,” Garcia said. “It’s encouraging to see that they continue to be helpful for residents, tourists, and commercial vehicle drivers in our state.”
A more active winter has also led to other 511 tool milestones. When the roads are closed, the Wyoming Travel Authorization Program can help drivers get to their destination when it is deemed safe enough to do so.
W-TAP Users have to reapply each year, and as of early February, the program had a record number of nearly 15,000 registered users, of which about 90% are Wyoming residents.
New W-TAP applications are received nearly every day. Beyond residents, users include commuters, doctors, and nurses from neighboring states that travel to work in small Wyoming hospitals, out-of-state students at the University of Wyoming, and more.
