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For Immediate Release

Verizon Activates 511: All Major Carriers Now Provide Access to Free Bay Area Travel Information

CONTACT:

John Goodwin, MTC
510.817.5862

Randy Rentschler, MTC
510.817.5780

OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 5, 2003...Verizon, the nation’s leading wireless provider and one of the top wireless providers in the Bay Area, has now activated 511’s traveler information service for its customers. The move allows Verizon customers throughout the nine-county Bay Area to use their wireless phones to call 511 to get the most current information on traffic conditions, routes, fares and schedules from more than 60 public transit and paratransit operators, carpooling/vanpooling and bicycling.

Introduced in December 2002 through a partnership between the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol (CHP), and dozens of transit operators, the Bay Area’s 511 phone service has been accessible from most landlines – including pay phones – and via most wireless carriers, including AT&T, Cingular, MetroPCS, Nextel, Sprint and T-Mobile. With the addition of Verizon, virtually anyone with a cell phone can access the service. The call is toll-free, but cellular callers will be billed for minutes used according to their plans.

"This is great news for the Bay Area," commented San Leandro Mayor and MTC Commissioner Shelia Young. "511 is a free service for the entire region. But we’ve had to explain which wireless providers did and did not offer access to the service. Since Verizon is one of the biggest wireless carriers in the Bay Area – and I’m one of their customers – I’m thrilled. This ought to eliminate the confusion. If you have a cell phone, you should be able to call 511."

MTC and its partners began developing the 511 system for the Bay Area in 2000, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted exclusive use of the 511 phone number to state and local transportation departments to distribute traveler information. The Bay Area is the largest metropolitan area in the country, and the first in California to activate 511 service. The service currently receives over 40,000 calls per week. The Bay Area’s 511 service was awarded the 2003 California Transportation Foundation Award for Excellence and the American Public Transportation Association’s 2003 Award for Innovation.

MTC is the transportation planning, coordinating and financing agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

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