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

Title:

Whether Weather Matters to Traffic Demand, Traffic Safety, and Traffic Operations and Flow

Abstract:

Weather impacts many aspects of transportation, but there are three predominate and measurable dimensions of weather's impact on highway traffic. Inclement weather impacts traffic demand, traffic safety, and traffic flow relationships. Understanding these relationships will help highway agencies select better management strategies and create more efficient operating policies. This paper reviews both the literature and recent research work conducted by the Center for Transportation Research and Education (CTRE) on weather's impact on traffic demand, traffic safety, and traffic flow relationships. Included are new estimates of the capacity and speed reduction due to rain, snow, fog, cold, and wind by weather intensity levels (e.g., snowfall rate per hour).

Source(s):

85th Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting, Iowa State University. For an electronic copy of this resource, please direct your request to WeatherFeedback@dot.gov.

Date: 2006

Author:

Maze, Agarwal, Burchett

Keywords:


Speed
Volume
Capacity
Precipitation
Crashes
Mobility
Safety

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