Surface Transportation Weather Reseach
Figure 1. Illustration of the MDSS winter maintenance treatment selector screen for an E-470 highway segment near Denver, Colorado. The MDSS recommended a chloride based chemical treatment of 200 pounds per lane mile at 7:00 AM and 10 AM to address freezing road conditions.
RAL’s commitment to build capacity for coping with weather and climate hazards is demonstrated by its leadership of a new Road Weather Research Program within the USDOT. Approximately 1.57 million accidents occur each year in poor weather on the nation's roads and an estimated 713,000 injuries and 7,300 deaths per year (based on an 8-year average) occur, creating an annual economic toll of approximately $42B. Weather plays a role in about 28% of the total crashes and 19% of the total fatalities. Weather also reduces capacity and significantly impacts efficiency, triggering congestion, particularly on roads operating near capacity. RAL has played a pivotal role in bringing the surface transportation and weather communities together to improve surface transportation safety and mobility. RAL staff will continue to provide national leadership in surface transportation weather by participating in surface transportation weather workshops, conferences, training programs, and committees.
FY06 Accomplishments:
Since 1999, RAL has led a team of national laboratories in the development of the Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) prototype, a unique decision support system that provides real-time snow and ice control guidance (e.g., treatment times, chemical choices, rates, and locations) for user-defined roadway segments. In FY06 the modeling, pavement (bridge and roadway) heat balance models, data fusion system, and rules of practice components of the MDSS were enhanced. Other highlights included refinement of the Road Weather Forecast System to better handle extreme events using a new model error correction scheme; expansion of snow and ice control rules-of-practice logic to handle a wider variety of weather and road conditions; transfer of MDSS Version-4.0 software to over 40 road weather service companies; and a successful stakeholder meeting with more than 100 participants from the surface transportation community. The likelihood of wider implementation of the MDSS technology was greatly improved when the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Technology Implementation Group declared the MDSS a ready-to-deploy technology. This allows State DOTs to apply for USDOT assistance in implementing the MDSS.
FY07 Plans:
Figure 2. Conceptual illustration of how vehicle data may contribute to the analysis and prediction of visibility along a roadway in Kansas. In this example, vehicle data contributing to a fog product include speed, relative humidity, headlamp setting, outside air temperature (OAT), and brake usage.
The MDSS will continue to be developed and validated in 2007 using Colorado as a test bed. The core of the MDSS will be expanded to support traffic, incident, and emergency management, as well as non-winter maintenance activities. RAL is also leading a national initiative, the FHWA Vehicle Infrastructure Integration Program, to determine the feasibility of using data from millions of vehicles to improve weather and road condition products and services. RAL will also assist the FHWA in the development of new weather and road condition hazard applications for travelers and will provide input and feedback to the FHWA on the development of the Nationwide Surface Transportation Weather Detection and Forecast System Initiative known as the Clarus Initiative. In 2006, RAL chaired the Clarus Quality Assessment Task Force, which was instrumental in evaluating surface weather observation quality control technologies and recommending quality checking techniques for the Clarus System. In 2007, RAL will continue to participate in various Clarus Task Forces charged with overall system development and demonstrations.