Wales relaunches bilingual online traffic info service
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The Welsh government has relaunched Traffic Wales, its online traffic management and information service, with new features aimed at helping motorists plan their journeys.
Among the new features on the revamped bilingual website are a calendar to view planned roadworks or events and a freight section aimed at road hauliers.
Microsoft Bing Maps will enable users to find locations, which will include the locations of incidents, roadworks, planned events, message signs and CCTV, the Welsh government said.
There is also a customised email or text alert service to inform subscribers the moment a major incident has happened. Alerts will include flight or train delays.
Carl Sargeant, the minister with responsibility for transport, said: "Ensuring that motorists get real time information as quickly and as easily as possible is essential so that they can plan their journeys and potentially avoid congested routes.
"The new look Traffic Wales website will provide motorists with an improved easy to use tool, along with more conventional channels such as the radio, to make informed travel decisions."
The Welsh government's usage figures show that between October 2010 and September this year, the site had 763,000 hits: an average of 64,000 per month. Web traffic peaked on 17 December 2010, when the site had nearly 72,000 hits during the severe winter when many local roads were closed.
This article was originally published at Guardian Government Computing.
Guardian Government Computing is a business division of Guardian Professional, and covers the latest news and analysis of public sector technology. For updates on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here.
COMMENTS
Having travelled a lot in Wales ..
I noticed that really important stuff - where there's limited space - is written in English. And having bothered to learn a bit, I notice that most Welsh speakers use it for the same reasons some people drop into a form of Hindi, when a non-Indian is around - to be rude and insulting. I took the time to learn some Hindi from various friends, and it's a sheer joy to join into a conversation asking "which stupid white man ?"
Nothing wrong with the Welsh trying to preserve their traditions and cultural heritage.
Insisting on translating traffic information, tax forms and other mundane items into Welsh seems an incredibly expensive and ineffective way of doing it.
Is that what the people of Wales want, or is it just what someone in Whitehall thinks they ought to want?
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