Integrating Surface Transportation Weather Information Systems - The DOT Role Transportation Research Board 85th Annual Meeting Session 494: SAFETEA-LU Road Weather Research and Development Program January 24, 2006

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Integrating Surface Transportation Weather
Information Systems - The DOT Role
Transportation Research Board 85th Annual
MeetingSession 494 SAFETEA-LU Road Weather
Research and Development Program January 24,
2006

• Jeffery F. Paniati
• Associate Administrator
• Office of Operations
• Federal Highway Administration

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Presentation Overview

• Importance of road weather management in
  achieving 21st century operations.
• Progress to date.
• Future direction--SAFETEA-LU section 5308.

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Basic Premise

• Build, maintain, and operate a transportation
  system that is safe, reliable, and secure.

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Current Reality

• BUILD, maintain, and operate a transportation
  system that is safe, reliable, and secure.

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The Effects of Weather on Our Roads

• Safety
• 24 of all crashes occurred on slick pavement or
  under adverse weather.
• Mobility
• Travel delay can increase by
• 11 to 50, depending on
• weather severity.
• Productivity
• Weather-related delay can
• add 3.4 billion to freight
• costs annually.

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Achieving 21st Century Operations

• Technical
• Advancement
• Information gathering
• Information sharing
• System mgmt. control
• Vehicle-based
• Vehicle-to-vehicle
• Vehicle-to-roadside-to-home base
• Electronic payment

• Institutional
• Change
• Customer focused
• Performance based
• Systems, not jurisdictions
• Real-time information
• Proactive
• 24/7

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Realizing the Vision
Institutional Change
21st Century Operations
Technical Advancement
A Cultural Shift
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21st Century Operations Under All Weather
Conditions

• FHWA is providing leadership and direction for
• 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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Progress to Date

• FHWA/NOAA Partnership
• The Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS)
• The Clarus Initiative

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FHWA/NOAA Partnership

• FHWA and NOAA have common strategic goals
• Reducing the loss of lives on the surface
  transportation system.
• Improving mobility to aid the free flow of
  commerce.
• Numerous examples of collaboration
• A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in July
  2005.
• FHWA and NOAA co-chair the Working Group on
  Weather Information for Surface Transportation.
• Cost-share on research and outreach projects.

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Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS)

• The 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.
• MDSS is a prime example of an integrated
  solution, enabling maintenance managers to make
  better, more effective decisions on when and how
  to deploy resources and treat roads.

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MDSS Route Specific Forecasts
High Resolution Maps with Routes
Snow accumulation Forecasts for Routes
Blowing Snow and Bridge Frost Alerts
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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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State DOT Investments in Environmental Sensor
Stations (ESS)
ESS owned by State Transportation Agencies An
Environmental Sensor Station (ESS) is any site
with sensors measuring atmospheric conditions,
pavement conditions, and/or water level
conditions.
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Unlimited Possibilities!
Spawn New Technologies (in-vehicle, PDA)
Clarus
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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 and development
• Multi-disciplinary stakeholder input
• NOAA
• AASHTO
• National Science Foundation
• Private sector
• Non-profit organizations
• Funding 5m/yr for 4 years

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Section 5308 Road Weather RD Program

• Affirms that we are on the right track.
• Enables us to do even more
• Expand upon the success of MDSS.
• Integrate Clarus and Vehicle Infrastructure
  Integration (VII).
• Build weather-responsive traffic management
  tools.

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Expand MDSS

• Build upon the success of MDSS by expanding it to
  support other operations and maintenance
  decisionmaking.
• Weather-responsive traffic management and
  traveler information.
• Maintenance and construction.
• Support the new market of MDSS services by
  documenting costs and benefits.
• Continued outreach, education, and technology
  transfer.

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Integrate Clarus VII

• There is a strong link between Clarus and the
  Vehicle Infrastructure Integration Initiative
  (VII).
• The marriage of these two initiatives will
• Completely alter the road weather landscape
• Spark new innovations in the private sector
• Change the way that atmospheric scientists
  observe and model the boundary layer
• Over the next four years, we will tap into the
  VII data stream, turning it into valuable road
  weather observations that can be utilized by the
  road weather community.

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Weather-responsive Traffic Management

• Traffic managers must be proactive.
• Integrated solutions pave the way.
• Both transportation modeling and weather modeling
  are improving in resolution, focusing on the
  mesoscale.
• Merging mesoscale weather forecasts (e.g., a
  precipitation forecast for the next 8 hours) with
  traffic models will enable a traffic manager to
  take action before the weather has a chance to
  take effect.
• Over the next four years we will explore such
  model integration as well as the development of
  better weather-responsive traffic management
  strategies.

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Conclusion

• Improved weather management is a key part of 21st
  century operations.
• The FHWA Weather Management program has
  established the institutional relationships and
  demonstrated the potential of technology.
• SAFETEA-LU Section 5308 will serve as a catalyst
  to change surface transportation weather and
  operations
• Providing the resources to develop integrated
  solutions
• Creating demand for these solutions by building
  bridges between the transportation and
  meteorological communities
• Leveraging public sector resources to build
  markets and improve private sector services
• These efforts will ultimately change the way that
  we make decisions, which will save lives, time,
  and money.