Road Weather Management Program
photos of lightning, trucks plowing snow, an empty road before a storm, and an evacuation
Office of Operations 21st century operations using 21st century technologies

Best Practices for Road Weather Management Version 2.0

Best Practices > Publications > Publication Titles

Title:

Usability Study of Statewide Web-Based Roadway Weather Information Systems

Abstract:

A usability study has been conducted of statewide Web-based traveler information systems to assess their effectiveness in conveying road-weather information to travelers. Guidelines from traveler information systems and Web site design literature were coalesced to create an assessment framework to include important elements from a user's perspective. A laboratory-based trip planning experiment provided ratings of site attributes. Site ratings revealed that it is important that travelers access information about conditions along their intended route with minimal searching. Map scale and resolution are important graphical elements, and the most relevant weather information elements identified by users were precipitation type, road surface condition, visibility, and air temperature.

Source(s):

83rd Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting; Trans Associates Engineering Consultants and Pennsylvania State University, Civil and Environmental Engineering. For an electronic copy of this resource, please direct your request to WeatherFeedback@dot.gov.

Date: 2004

Author:

Fayish, Jovanis

Keywords:


Traveler information
Internet/web site
Road weather information system (RWIS)
Route choice

PDF files can be viewed with the Acrobat® Reader®.
Office of Operations