ODOT to the rescue

Oregon Coast Ranks Worst In U.S. For Bottlenecks
Millions of people are expected to hit the road this Fourth of July weekend. The Oregon Coast has earned a nationwide reputation for having sandy beaches, eclectic shopping and the worst traffic bottlenecks in the country.

The entire Oregon Coast is No. 1 on the list of the worst vacation bottlenecks in the country.

But don't you worry, ODOT is springing into action:

Oregon Department Of Transportation's TripCheck.com Improves Services, Adds New Travel Information
After a very busy five years in service, TripCheck.com is upgrading its image and enhancing its services. TripCheck.com is ODOT's traveler information web site offering road conditions, construction updates, and incident reports.

Several new features will make the site even more valuable to users, including:

• an "Alert!" box, offering a quick view of high impact events such as highway closures and severe winter weather (an example is Portland's ice storm last January);
  
• an Announcements section, informing visitors of important news about TripCheck (such as new services);
  
• a new Travel Center section, containing information about roadside restaurants, lodging, attractions, scenic byways, Sno-Parks, and more;
  
• default page capability, allowing users to designate their most viewed page as a home page; and
  
• the ability to choose up to ten different camera shots on a customized page.

For some strange reason "improve traffic conditions" isn't on this list. But thankfully they have duplicated information that you can get from other sources (the radio, mapquest) and offer an "Anouncements section" where ODOT can tell you what other worthless (and not very innovative) ideas they will add to their website with your tax dollars.

Galen McGill, manager of ODOT's Intelligent Transportation Systems (an serious oxymoron) is very excited about these updates. So, tommorow before you leave for your vacation at the coast, make sure you check on ODOT's 150+ "road cams" so that you can see, in real time, that yes, the traffic is bad.