Welcome to Road Weather Management
Weather-Savvy Roads
Under the FHWA Every Day Counts (EDC) program, we are promoting deployment of two Road Weather Management solutions: Pathfinder and Integrating Mobile Observations. The Pathfinder Implementation Guide (PDF 2MB) is now available. Additional information can be found here: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/
innovation/everydaycounts/edc_4/
roadweather.cfm.
What's New
Guidelines for Deploying CV-Enabled WRTM Strategies
The Road Weather Management Program and the ITS Joint Program Office published a document titled Guidelines for Deploying Connected Vehicle-Enabled Weather Responsive Traffic Management Strategies (PDF 5MB). The document provides useful information for transportation agencies on how they can incorporate road weather connected vehicle data for traffic management operations and decision-making.
Pikalert® Vehicle Data Translator
The Pikalert® Vehicle Data Translator (VDT) is software that leverages roadway and atmospheric data from traditional sources (Road Weather Information System (RWIS) stations, forecasts from the National Weather Service (NWS), radar, etc.) as well as from new data sourced from connected vehicles (CV) and fuses them in order to make inferences on weather and road conditions that can be used to support maintenance, operations, and travel decisions. Version 5.0 of the VDT system has been posted in the Open Source Application Development Portal (OSADP – https://www.itsforge.net/) and it is ready for use. Over the past year FHWA made a series of enhancements to the code so that pavement and atmospheric condition inferences made by the system are more accurate and the user interface is more user friendly. The documentation for the tool has been updated as well.
Road Weather Management Capability Maturity Framework (Workshop and Tool)
Transportation agencies can avail of a facilitated workshop and/or use the electronic tool on their own to conduct Road Weather Management Capability Maturity assessments. The Capability Maturity Framework workshop and electronic tool will evaluate the agency’s ability to effectively manage operations during adverse weather conditions. When the existing capability levels are determined, a list of concrete actions is created for agencies to raise their capabilities to the desired levels. To schedule a workshop, contact Roemer Alfelor at roemer.alfelor@dot.gov or 202-366-9242.
Benefit-Cost Analysis for Road Weather Management: Compendium and Briefs
The FHWA Road Weather Management Program published a Compendium and three Technical Briefs on Benefic Cost Analysis (BCA) for Road Weather Management (RWM). This compendium provides detailed guidance on benefit cost analysis for transportation operations with a focus on Road Weather Management Strategies, and presents seventeen case studies. The technical briefs (1, 2 and 3) summarize the application of BCA concepts and tools to RWM as well as the examples that are found in the compendium, including BCA for Road Weather Connected Vehicle Applications
Publications Now Available
- Citizen Reporting of Current Road Conditions
- Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) Weather Responsive Traveler Information (Wx-TINFO) System Implementation Project (PDF 7.4MB)
- South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) Regional Traveler Information System for Weather Responsive Traffic Management (PDF 4.3MB)
- Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) Road Condition Reporting Application for Weather Responsive Traffic Management (PDF 3.3MB)
- Weather Responsive Traffic Signal Timing at Utah DOT (PDF 993KB)
- Utah DOT Citizen Reporting Program for Road Weather (PDF 770KB)
- Results from the Integrated Mobile Observations Study (PDF 11MB)
- Best Practices for Road Weather Management, Version 3.0 (PDF 2.3MB)
Additional Listing of Road Weather Management Program Publications
Adverse weather conditions have a major impact on the safety and operation of our Nation's roads, from signalized arterials to Interstate highways. Weather affects driver behavior, vehicle performance, pavement friction, and roadway infrastructure. Weather events and their impacts on roads can be viewed as predictable, non-recurring incidents that affect safety, mobility and productivity. Weather affects roadway safety through increased crash risk, as well as exposure to weather-related hazards. Weather impacts roadway mobility by increasing travel time delay, reducing traffic volumes and speeds, increasing speed variance (i.e., a measure of speed uniformity), and decreasing roadway capacity (i.e., maximum rate at which vehicles can travel). Weather events influence productivity by disrupting access to road networks, and increasing road operating and maintenance costs.
- How do weather events impact roads?
- What are the benefits of using road weather management strategies?
- What technologies are available to mitigate road weather impacts?
Web-Based Course/Training
- Road Weather Management Web-Based Courses - FHWA and the Consortium for ITS Training and Education (CITE) are now offering three interactive web-based courses: (1) Principles and Tools of Road Weather Management, (2) RWIS Equipment and Operations, and (3) Weather Responsive Traffic Management. A new Road Weather Management Certificate is also being offered to those who will complete these three core RWM courses and additional elective courses on ITS. Information about the 2014 Road Weather Management Courses (which are currently offered free for transportation agencies) can be found at http://citeconsortium.org/courses/2014Blended_RW_021114.pdf (PDF 144KB).
- NWS Web-Based Training - FHWA and the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training have developed a web-based training course for road weather management staff to learn about National Weather Service products, forecasts and warnings.
Upcoming Events
There are currently no events listed. Please check back soon.
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