Lake Co. launches traffic alerts

Motorists have a new weapon in their never-ending battle with Lake County's notorious traffic jams: e-mail.

The county's transportation division has launched an electronic alert system that will notify drivers of roadwork, accidents, traffic signal malfunctions and other delay-causing situations.

It's part of the county's Lake County PASSAGE program, a high-tech traffic monitoring system that launched a few years ago. Passage relays real-time information to motorists via the county's cable TV station, 1620-AM radio and lakecountypassage.com.

The e-mail notification system is growing in popularity every day. As of Friday, about 155 people had signed up for the alerts, more than double the number who'd joined just two days earlier, Lake County spokeswoman Jennie Vana said.

Although the program is handy, drivers should not check for e-mail traffic alerts while they're behind the wheel, Vana warned. After all, texting or sending e-mail while driving is against the law in Illinois.

“We encourage people to check their e-mail before they leave work, before they leave home or before they get in their vehicles,” Vana said.

The alerts are created by the county's transportation management center in Libertyville, based on reports from local police departments' computerized dispatch systems, county officials said.

The program generates about 20 alerts a day, said Jonathan Nelson, a traffic engineer with the county. The alerts go out on weekdays only, between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m., he said.

People can sign up for the alerts by going to lakecountypassage.com and clicking on the E-mail Notifications link at the top of the main page.

Users can personalize the information they receive by creating regions to be monitored and lists of events that would generate alerts.

People also can control when they receive the e-mails.

A video tutorial designed to help people register for the program is on the website.