The Ministry of Transportation has added a voice activated option to their Traveller Information Services to compliment the interactive maps on their Web Site.
Please observe all laws regarding distracted driving and use a hands free device or pull over if accessing this service while on the road.
About Ontario 511
Ontario 511 is an Ontario Ministry of Transportation telephone service that provides the public with voice-activated, hands-free information on provincial highways:
Road closures Winter road conditions Construction projects
How to access Ontario 511
Just dial 511. Call to check the roads before setting out on a trip.
If calling 511 while driving, observe Ontario’s ban on cell phone use while driving. Pull over safely to the road shoulder before calling or use hands-free, Bluetooth technology.
Additional Ontario 511 features
- Zero-out to an agent from Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
- Access to 511 from other jurisdictions, such as 511 Quebec, 511 NY
- For callers outside of province: 1-866-929-4257
- TTY service is available for those with hearing impairments 1-866-471-8929
- Twitter feed for provincial highway road closures at: English: @511Ontario or French: @Ontario511
Ontario 511 Technology
The 511 telephone service uses voice recognition and text-to-speech technologies to give road information in audio format. Since information is pulled from a variety of databases, you will hear different voice recordings on 511.
About MTO Traveller Information Services
The Ministry of Transportation’s Traveller Information Services provides road information for provincial highways in Ontario by telephone at 5-1-1 or online with accessible information on the MTO Ontario 511 website www.ontario.ca/511
The Ontario 511 site provides detailed road information for Ontario’s provincial highways that can be viewed in interactive maps or as text in English or French. At present, the Ontario 511 site is not mobile friendly.
Check online before setting out on a trip, to see the latest:
- Road Closures & Restrictions
- Incidents and Closures
- Today’s Roadwork
- Planned Roadwork
- Traffic & Road Information
- Construction
- Traffic Flow (GTA)
- High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes (HOV)
- Road Conditions- Description of Road Conditions and Visibility
- Traffic Cameras
- Other Traveller Information
- Service Centres
- Ferry Services
- Provincial Parks
- Travel Information Centres
Tips for using the Ontario 511 website
- Click on the topics listed in the left hand legend to access the text information or click on the map to activate the interactive map.
- Use the Google map's + or - to zoom in or out, or click and drag 'hand' to move across the province.
- Select information layers by clicking on the boxes in the map's legend. The topics selected will appear as symbols or colours on the map. The symbols and colours are explained in the legend below the map.
- Clicking on a symbol/condition on the map will give a pop-up with detailed information.
The technology behind Ontario 511 and MTO traffic cameras
MTO terminology and colours for describing road conditions explained
MTO is using a new national terminology and colour scheme on its online interactive map and 511 phone line to describe winter road conditions. Canadian road authorities have developed a common winter road condition terminology and colour scheme to provide consistency for the travelling public wherever they use 511 in Canada.