Best Practices for Road Weather Management Version 2.0

Title:

Evaluation of the Benefits of Integrated Winter Road Weather Information in North Dakota

Abstract:

North Dakota DOT and the University of North Dakota implemented improvements to the process by which they implement road restrictions during the winter-spring periods and to enhance the integration of road-weather information in transportation and emergency response agencies in both North and South Dakota. This report presents the draft test plans for the evaluation and a discussion of the baseline data collection and analysis. Researchers found the following. Road restrictions are made by the District Engineers on a relatively ad hoc basis using a variety of different kinds of information. Better data are needed to ground these restriction decisions more scientifically and to help shield the decisions from political influence. The commercial operators prefer to have more advanced notification of the impending restrictions than they currently receive. Almost two-thirds of the commercial operators interviewed (62 percent) said their companies experienced "some" or "severe" impacts from the imposed road restrictions. Overall, 74 percent of the operators said they would value shorter restrictions, and 54 percent said they would value more selectively placed restrictions.

Source(s):

Battelle Memorial Institute and Myer, Mohaddes Associates; Prepared for FHWA ITS Joint Porgram Office

https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/4106

Date: 2004

Author:

Battelle Memorial Institute & Meyer, Mohaddes Associates, Inc.

Keywords:

Road weather information system (RWIS)
Snow
Ice/Frost
Decision support
Pavement condition
Winter maintenance
Institutional issues
Benefits
Traffic control

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