ROAD WEATHER MANAGEMENT

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ROAD WEATHER MANAGEMENT

• Paul Pisano
• Team Leader, Road Weather Management
• Federal Highway Administration
• Washington, DC

June 13, 2006 Contact paul.pisano_at_dot.gov
202-366-1301
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Weather and Highway Operations

• Safety
• Approx 1.57 million weather-related crashes/year
• 7,300 fatalities 690,000 injuries
• 24 of all crashes occurred on slick pavement or
  under adverse weather
• Mobility
• About 25 of non-recurrent delays on freeways is
  due to weather system delay is 1 billion hrs/yr.
• Productivity
• Weather-related delay adds 3.4 billion to
  freight costs annually
• Environment
• Chemical anti-icing and deicing materials effect
  watersheds, air quality and infrastructure

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Adverse Road Weather National Toll
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Transportation Operations
Institutional Change Customer focused Performance
based Systems, not jurisdictions Real-time
information Proactive 24/7
Technical Advancement Information Gathering
Information Sharing System Mgmt. Control
Vehicle-based Vehicle-to-Vehicle
Vehicle-to-Roadside-to- Home
Based Electronic Payment
21st Century Operations
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21st Century OperationsUnder All Weather
Conditions

• FHWA is providing leadership and direction
• Institutional Change
• Bridge transportation and meteorological
  communities
• Build markets
• Technical Advancement
• Develop integrated solutions
• Leverage resources
• Developing solutions that alleviate the effects
  of adverse weather on the transportation system

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SAFETEA-LU, Section 5308

• Establish a Road Weather RD program
• Follow NRC report Where the Weather Meets the
  Road
• Promote Technology Transfer
• Expand Research Development
• Multi-disciplinary stakeholder input
• NOAA
• NSF
• AASHTO
• Private sector
• Non-profit orgs.
• Funding 5m/yr for 4 years

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FHWA Road Weather Mgmt Program

• Solutions to challenges are approached through
  four objectives
• Stakeholder Coordination
• Applied Research
• Technology Transfer, Training Education
• Performance Management Evaluation

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Objective 1 Stakeholder Coordination
Bring a multi-disciplinary approach to the road
weather challenges, developing strong
partnerships with the public private sectors of
the transportation and weather communities.

• Build formal partnerships with weather industry
• Funded BASC study
• FHWA/NOAA Memorandum of Understanding July,
  2005
• OFCM Working Groups
• AMS ITS/Surface Transportation Committee
• Elevate the profile of weather within the
  transportation community
• Established the TRB Task Force on weather
• AASHTO
• Strengthen international links (e.g., PIARC)

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Objective 2 Applied Research
Integrate weather advancements (e.g., high
resolution surface weather modeling) with
advanced transportation solutions to develop and
demonstrate innovative tools and technologies.

• Road weather observing systems
• Clarus initiative
• Decision support tools
• Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS)
• Weather-responsive traffic management

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Objective 3 T2, Training Education
Advance the state of the practice by raising Road
Weather Management capabilities across the
transportation industry.

• Develop training outreach material
• NHI Course Principles and Tools for Road
  Weather Mgmt.
• ITE Professional Development CD
• AASHTO Anti-icing/RWIS computer-based training
• Road Risk DVD with The Weather Channel
• Promote market-ready technologies (MDSS)
• Ease access to Road Weather Management resources
• Target conferences
• AASHTO/FHWA Eastern Snow Expo
• ITS America Weather Alley
• AMS Annual Meeting

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Objective 4 Performance Management
Develop performance measures that can be used to
evaluate and compare alternative road weather
management strategies.

• Identify performance measures for Road Weather
  Management (with NOAA)
• Develop winter maintenance performance standards
  (NCHRP 6-17)
• Develop benefit-cost analysis procedures for Road
  Weather Management tools
• Conduct b/c analyses (e.g., MDSS)
• ITS deployment studies

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Program Highlights

• Maintenance Decision Support System
• The Clarus Initiative
• Weather-responsive Traffic Management
• New projects

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Maintenance Decision Support System

• MDSS is a winter maintenance decision-support
• system that combines
• Advanced weather prediction
• Advanced road condition prediction
• Rules of practice for anti-icing and de-icing
• The system generates winter treatment
• recommendations on a route-by-route basis.

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Maintenance Decision Support System
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MDSS Treatment Selector
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States Involved in MDSS
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The Clarus Initiative

• Clarus is a system that assimilates, quality
  checks, and disseminates the nations road
  weather observations
• Initiative Objectives
• Design, develop and demonstrate these
  capabilities
• Work with our public and private partners to
  develop and evaluate the value-added road weather
  information products that Clarus enables
• Establish partnerships to move from demonstration
  to deployment of a nationwide network

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Environmental Sensor Stations (ESS)
An ESS is any site with sensors measuring
atmospheric conditions, pavement conditions,
and/or water level conditions.
Alaska
Hawaii
D.C.
6
74
1
83
4
5
5
60
19
154
58
11
43
60
15
40
63
28
33
9
90
82
86
70
61
169
31
87
60
117
4
6
63
44
111
15
63
39
34
81
16
2
4
1
24
0
6
National Total 2,336
92
71
3
30
ESS in RWIS 1,815
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Clarus Unlimited Possibilities
Spawn New Technologies (PDA, cell)
Clarus
In-vehicle Information
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Clarus Roadmap
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Wx-Responsive Traffic Management

• Integration of Weather into Traffic
  Management/Operations Center
• Empirical Studies on Weather and Traffic
• Weather Response System for Transportation
• NGSIM Traffic Simulation Models

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TMC Weather Integration Study

• Five levels of integration were analyzed
• Operational, physical, technical, procedural,
  institutional
• 9 TMCs/TOCs were evaluated
• Summary of Practices
• Most centers respond to traffic, not weather
• Info from Weather Channel and ESS
• Weather info used mainly for advisory purposes
• MD and UT centers highly integrated
• Final Report includes several recommendations

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Empirical Studies on Wx and Traffic

• Goal To understand relationship between weather
  and traffic flow
• Completed review of existing data and studies
• Impact of rain and snow moderately studied
• Little research on visibility, wind and other
  events
• Mostly macroscopic analysis
• Conducting Data Collection and Analysis
• Investigate regional differences, variable
  facilities
• Transition from free flow to congested flow
• Visibility impacts
• Future steps
• Human factors data collection and analysis
• Incorporate new knowledge in existing models

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Weather Response System

• Goal Utilize existing weather data to support
  transportation operations
• Prototype Development in Missouri DOT

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New Projects

• Implementation and evaluation of the ESS Siting
  Guidelines
• Develop a Needs Assessment Guide for integrating
  weather in TMC operations
• Develop performance metrics for Road Weather
  Management
• MDSS Cost-Benefit Analysis (w/S. Dakota)
• Defining requirements for other types of
  weather-related decision making

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Conclusion

• We are in the midst of a culture change in
  surface transportation weather and operations
• Creating demand for integrated solutions
• Leveraging public sector resources to build
  markets and improve private sector services
• Engaging stakeholders and building partnerships
• Developing and applying the right tools and
  technologies will help transportation agencies
  make the right decisions.