Articles

The 50^th anniversary of the first 911 call, made on February 16, 1968, in Haleyville, Alabama, has arrived. In 1968, it would be difficult to imagine that an estimated 240 million 911 calls would be made annually, 80% of them from cellular devices. With the increasing number of calls from mobile phones, there is concern that 911 has not kept pace with advancing technology. The question that inevitably gets asked is, “Uber and Facebook know my location, why doesn’t 911?” When seconds count in life and death situations, concern from the public is understandable. Today, 911 is on the verge of a much-needed upgrade, and geographic information is a critical component.

“Customer driven, now more than ever” is the mantra of the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA). Accomplishing such a goal is not always an easy task for a state Department of Transportation (DOT) in the United States, especially when there are more cars on the road each year and an increasing demand for information to be publicized at lightning speed. With this in mind, SHA recently released the Mobility & Economy Dashboard, a web-based mapping application that shows projects taxpayers paid for in the last year and how well those efforts impacted the overall performance of Maryland’s roadways.