A new bill signed into law last week is requiring the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to create an app that helps drivers to stay informed about accidents, construction zones, lane closures, and weather conditions.
Rep. Carol Ammons believes this is a commonsense idea, even though other state representatives were concerned about costs. Sponsors of the new app noted that college students across the state make their own mobile apps each year.
Republican Illinois lawmakers estimate that the app could cost over $2 million to launch.
“I don't believe it will cost millions of dollars," Ammons told WAND TV. “It will cost them a little effort for them to recruit a student who is in engineering, who is in computer science, in order to create this app and to maintain it if they want to do that."
Republican Illinois lawmakers argued that IDOT will fail to create an app that is as robust as an app created by Google, Apple or TomTom.
"We're putting them up to fail," said Rep. Jeff Keicher. "And we're not going to have an app that anybody is going to utilize, not because it won't be valuable but because the other information is out there."
Keicher has suggested IDOT visit with any of the companies to see about having a plug-in with their applications.
Senate Bill 1526 passed in the House with a 69-40 vote on May 11. The plan passed in the Senate on a 53-4 vote on March 29.
The new law takes effect on January 1.
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Source: WAND TV
