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Wide-Area Alert

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Definition:

This market package uses ITS driver and traveler information systems to alert the public in emergency situations such as child abductions, severe weather events, civil emergencies, and other situations that pose a threat to life and property. The alert includes information and instructions for transportation system operators and the traveling public, improving public safety and enlisting the public’s help in some scenarios. The ITS technologies will supplement and support other emergency and homeland security alert systems such as the Emergency Alert System (EAS). When an emergency situation is reported and verified and the terms and conditions for system activation are satisfied, a designated agency broadcasts emergency information to traffic agencies, transit agencies, information service providers, toll operators, and others that operate ITS systems. The ITS systems, in turn, provide the alert information to transportation system operators and the traveling public using ITS technologies such as dynamic message signs, highway advisory radios, in-vehicle displays, transit displays, 511 traveler information systems, and traveler information web sites.

Elements Associated with Wide-Area Alert