For the public
GTA Alerts
A real-time picture of GTA fire and police calls, transit delays, and road incidents — with maps and briefings instead of a maze of agency feeds.
One view of what is happening now
GTA Alerts turns a patchwork of public feeds into one live picture of the Greater Toronto Area. A commuter can check a delayed train, a resident can understand the sirens nearby, and anyone planning a trip can see road, fire, police, and transit activity without opening a row of unrelated websites.
The problem behind the screen
The information already exists, but each organization publishes it differently. One source uses a table, another posts short messages, and another expects people to search a map. Even when every feed is working, the experience still feels fragmented. I designed GTA Alerts around the person’s question — what is happening around me right now? — rather than around the agencies that own the data.
What I brought together
- A live, filterable feed. People can narrow incidents by source, active or cleared status, and time window, then switch between compact table and feed views.
- A map for quick context. Recent alerts are plotted geographically, with simple six-, twelve-, twenty-four-, and forty-eight-hour windows.
- Readable news and briefings. Short summaries collect the important events from a chosen period, with daily and on-demand reports for people who do not want to interpret every raw alert.
- Questions in everyday language. The built-in assistant can answer a question such as “Are there subway delays downtown?” and keep the supporting alerts close by.
- Patterns beyond the moment. A statistics view shows activity by source and time of day, geographic breakdowns, and the health of each incoming feed.
- Useful personal controls. Location, saved alerts, zones, notification tools, and display settings let the same dashboard work for a quick check or regular monitoring.
Making urgency easy to scan
Real-time information becomes noise if every row shouts at the same volume. The interface separates source, place, time, status, and severity so the eye can find what changed first. Details stay collapsed until they are useful, while filters and clear labels keep a busy board approachable on a phone or a large screen.
Trust is part of the design
The dashboard shows when each source last reported instead of quietly treating a silent feed as “no incidents.” That distinction matters. A resilient screen should continue working when one provider is delayed, but it should also tell the user what it cannot currently confirm.
What the project demonstrates
GTA Alerts shows how thoughtful information design can make a complex service feel immediate and calm. The same approach applies to any organization with several data sources, competing priorities, and customers who need the answer much faster than they need the underlying system explained.
Public information sources
The live board combines public information from Toronto fire and police services, the TTC, GO Transit, MiWay, York Region Transit, Durham Region Transit, and Ontario 511. Each source keeps its own role; the interface gives people one consistent way to read them together.