Helping Loudoun County Residents with Daily Commutes

The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office & the County’s Department of Information Technology have developed a website to aid residents with their daily commutes

The website, www.loudoun.gov/traffic, lists traffic incidents worked by theLoudoun County Sheriff’s Office, the Middleburg Police Department and thePurcellville Police Department. Commuters can use the site to check theirroute to and from work to determine if there are any traffic-related issues.”Due to the high volume of traffic on our roadways, something as simple as astalled vehicle on the shoulder of the road can cause major delays,” saidLoudoun Sheriff Steve Simpson. “The website won’t help alleviate traffic,but it will give Loudoun commuters timely accident information and roadwayconditions to assist them with their travel plans,” he added. The listedincidents include major accidents, road closures, property damage accidents,minor accidents, hit and run accidents, traffic signal malfunctions, roadwayobstructions and disabled vehicles.

The website lists the incidents in real time and can be accessed from anycomputer with internet access or via HTML enabled mobile browsers. To viewthe website on your cell phone go to www.loudoun.gov/mobiletraffic. TheSheriff’s Office reminds residents never to use your mobile browser whileoperating a vehicle.

Traffic-related issues worked by the Virginia State Police will be listed ifthe trooper was dispatched by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office EmergencyCommunications Center. Traffic incidents worked by the Leesburg PoliceDepartment are not listed.

Members of the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and the Department ofInformation Technology worked on the law enforcement traffic site for thepast several months. The incidents listed on the site include:

Major Accident: Crash involving one or more vehicles and possible seriousinjuries
Property Damage Accident: Crash involving one or more vehicles with minor orno injuries.
Disabled Vehicle: A malfunctioning vehicle possibly impeding traffic flow.
Hit & Run Accident: A single or multiple vehicle crash where a vehicle hasleft the scene.
Traffic Signal Malfunction: Traffic signals are either malfunctioning or offdue to power failure. A intersection where there are four-way trafficsignals that are off due to a power issues must be treated as a four-waystop.
Road Closure: Roadway is closed due to police activity or severe weatherconditions.
Roadway Obstruction: An object in the roadway is interfering with trafficflow or motorist safety.

The website is seen as one tool in aiding residents with their commutes.Residents should continue to follow traffic reports from the media fordetailed information regarding traffic-related issues. The agency alsoencourages residents to sign up and receive Road Closure alerts from the Alert Loudoun system. The system is free and allows those who sign up toreceive the latest news affecting the county. The information can be sent toyour e-mail as well as cell phones or pagers that receive text messaging.

Residents may register by logging onto the county website at www.loudoun.govand clicking on Alert Loudoun. The service is available to anyone with ane-mail account. A friendly reminder for those having alerts sent to theirpager or cell phone, due to the nature of some of the messages you mayreceive an alert at any time of day or night.

The system was implemented in 2003 and allows residents and business ownersto receive instant notification of major road closures as well as criminalactivity in the county.

Article taken from www.loudoun.gov