Road Weather Management Program
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Best Practices for Road Weather Management Version 2.0

Title:

The Winter Model: A Winter Maintenance Management System

Abstract:

The winter model project will result in a model for assessing the most important effects and the monetary value of alterations to winter maintenance strategies and operations in Sweden. The effects are assessed for road users, road administrators, and the environment. For road users, the main effects concern mobility (in terms of vehicle speed and flow) and safety. By using simultaneous monitoring of road surface conditions and traffic, the relationship between speed and different roadway conditions has been established. The speed reductions due to seven specified roadway conditions (moist, wet, ice, or snow) relative to the speed at dry bare conditions are generally significant. The reduction can be as great as 20 percent. No relationship for traffic flow could be established. The average crash rate (accidents per million vehicle kilometers) during a winter season can be 16 times larger in black ice conditions than in dry road conditions. The crash rate in ice and snow conditions has an exponential relation to the duration of the condition?for example, the shorter the duration, the higher the crash rate.

Source(s):

6th International Symposium on Snow Removal and Ice Control Technology, Transportation Research Circular, No. E-C063

http://trb.org/publications/circulars/ec063.pdf

Date: 2004

Author:

Wallman

Keywords:


Costs
Productivity
Environment
Pavement condition
Traffic management
Speed
Safety
Crashes
Snow
Ice/Frost

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