511 Phone Content and Features

Wireless and landline providers that support access to 511:

511 calls made from your cell phone will only cost you the minutes used during your calls.

From the Main menu you can go to Public Transportation, Traffic, RideLink and a Spanish Menu. The Main Menu also provides shortcuts to Roadside Assistance, Border Crossings, Traffic Conditions and Driving Times.

Public Transportation

511 provides toll-free transfers for San Diego Area transit modes so you don’t have to remember transit-related phone numbers any longer. Through our partnership with the area transit agencies, 511 can provide you with information for buses, trolleys, commuter trains, the Coaster, and Paratransit. When you call 511, you can ask for the transit mode from the Public Transportation Menu. If you are not sure what mode you’d like, they will be listed. Once you’ve made your selection, 511 will either play a recorded message for select options (e.g., fares, passes, etc.) or transfer your call to a live transit operator.

Bus information Transfers to Bus related operator, Lost and Found Operator, the automated trip planner, and to the transit departure menu. Bus routes currently available for departure times are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 20, 27, 30, 31, 41, 44, 50, 105, 120, 150, 210, 302, 303, 304, 306, 308, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 315, 318, 320, 321, 322, 324, 325, 332, 333, 334, 335, 336, 337, 338, 341, 344, 347, 348, 349, 350, 351, 352, 353, 354, 355, 356, 365, 386, 388, 395, 397, 403, 404, 409, 415, 426, 441, 442, 444, 445, 447.

Trolley Information Transfers to Trolley operators, and the lost and found operator

The Coaster information Transfers to the Coaster operators, special events hotline and the lost and found operator

Commuter Trains Information Transfers to Amtrak, MetroLink, Sprinter and Coaster operators

Paratransit Agency information Transfers to the local Paratransit agencies serving persons with disabilities or the elderly, including shuttle services, public transportation, and customer service. If you don’t know which agency you need you can say the city you are in, and you will be transferred to the correct agency.

Traffic

Enhanced software supports an array of features on the 511 phone system that enable SANDAG to provide high quality traffic information. The features include:

Traffic Conditions Provides current incidents and average speeds when traffic is moving less than 40 miles per hour. It also provides road closure information from CHP, Caltrans, and other transportation agencies. To select a route, you can simply say, “8” instead of “Interstate 8,” or to be more specific, say “8 East” As with the rest of the 511 system, you can interrupt the operator at any time. While 511 is giving you incident information, you can say “next” to skip to the next incident.

Driving Times Driving Times provides actual driving times for specific routes based on real-time traffic information. When you call 511, ask for “Driving Times” at the Main Menu. Once you get to the Driving Times Menu, the system will prompt you for your starting point. This can be a city, like ”Carlsbad,” or a point of interest, like “Sea World.”  511 will then ask for your ending point. Certain larger cities have multiple starting/ending points to enable 511 to provide you with a more accurate driving time. Please note some of the location selections are outside the current coverage for Driving Times. Driving Times for these locations will be added as the system expands.

Roadside Assistance At the traffic menu, ask for Roadside Assistance, and you will get transferred to a San Diego SAFE operator who can help you if you are having trouble on the highways.

Airports Provides information about airport traffic conditions, or will transfer a caller to a San Diego International Airport (Lindbergh Field) operator.

FasTrak™ Transfers toll-free to an operator who has information on the FasTrak™ Electronic Toll Collection program. The FasTrak™ program is a way for drivers to pay tolls via an electronic transponder. FasTrak™ users are able to drive non-stop through toll plazas in dedicated FasTrak™ lanes, and the tolls are automatically deducted from their prepaid FasTrak™ accounts.

RideLink

At the Main Menu ask for any of the following: “RideLink, bicycling, carpooling, or rideshare”, and 511 will connect you with a RideLink operator who can explain how to join a carpool or vanpool, provide transportation incentives to employees, and provides information on rideshare incentives, park-and-ride lots, and other information on ridesharing.

Spanish

While not currently fully supported, 511 provides Spanish services for RideLink, Transit, and Roadside Assistance. In the future, 511 will fully support all its services and features, particularly traffic and real-time transit arrivals, in Spanish.

Currently, at the main menu say “Español” or press 1 to go to the Spanish Menu. At the Spanish menu, 511 provides some options to transfer Spanish-speaking callers to either Roadside Assistance, Transit, or RideLink.

Border Crossing

At the Main Menu, say “Border Crossings” to go to the Border Crossing Menu. At the Border Crossing Menu, 511 provides options to transfer to Border Crossing Stations at Otay Mesa, San Ysidro, or Tecate.