The winter driving season has begun!

Brenda Augerman-Audette, manager of traveller communications at the Ministry of Transportation, said the government is looking to support drivers across the province this winter.

“We introduced the [Ontario 511] app in April to support truckers, but now we’ve expanded this app to be available to all drivers in the province to check road conditions, locate snow plows, and find places to stop and rest on provincial highways,” Augerman-Audette said.

Augerman-Audette explained the new updates the Ontario 511 app now includes.

“A track my plow feature, to locate snow plows and salt trucks that are out on provincial highways, to check winter road conditions to see if roads are bare, bare and wet, or covered with snow, and we’ve now included weather warnings from Environment Canada,” she said.

She said the weather warnings feature will alert drivers of upcoming storms and the app has a map view for drivers.

“But it also has a hands-free drive mode, that provides audible alerts about upcoming incidents, and closures, open rest areas, or weather events, so that’s when you’re driving it’s auditory, which makes it safer,” she said.

She adds that the app also provides images from over 600 cameras and includes up-to-date highway information on construction, collisions and road closures.

If you haven’t done so already, it may be a good time to download the Ontario 511 app for all your winter driving needs.

The app is available for free on the App Store and Google Play.

Brenda Augerman-Audette, manager of traveler communications at the Ministry of Transportation: