Where the Weather Meets the Road: A Research Agenda for Improving Road Weather Services

1. Where the Weather Meets the Road: A Research Agenda for Improving Road Weather Services Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate Transportation Research Board Friends of Aurora 1 December 2004 Minneapolis, MN

2. FHWA asked National Academies to identify research needed to address weather impacts on the road environment Weather impairs both safety and efficiency of roadways • Associated with over 1.5 million accidents annually, accounting for ~600,000 injuries and 7,000 deaths • Associated with 500 million hours of driver delay annually Few new roads and increasing vehicle miles traveled will exacerbate already existing capacity problems

3. The Road Weather SystemOf The Future • “Infostructure” overlaying Road Infrastructure • Measurements to monitor weather, road conditions, and traffic flow • Integrated model-based decision support tools • Telecommunications tools to move data to/from the roadway • Multi-purpose components serving drivers, traffic managers, law enforcement, emergency management, road maintenance • “Smart” Vehicles • Communication with the road infostructure and other vehicles • Advise drivers on options, road and traffic conditions, safety concerns • Mobile observing platforms • “Weather-smart” Users • Training and education programs required

4. Primary Recommendation: Establish a focused, coordinated national road weather research program • Maximize use of available road weather information and technologies; • Expand road weather research and development efforts to enhance roadway safety, capacity, and efficiency while minimizing environmental impacts; and • Effectively implement new scientific and technological advances Program Goals:

5. Program Implementation Regional Road Weather Research Centers • To develop new technologies, foster technology implementation on regional roadways, and facilitate interaction between governments, the private sector, and academia • Should bring together weather and transportation researchers, and practitioners/service providers in the public and private sectors National Demonstration Corridors • To demonstrate effectiveness of road weather improvements, facilitate nationwide implementation of research results, and provide a seamless stream of road weather information to users

6. Centralized leadership at the federal level is essential • FHWA should have lead rolein new road weather research program • NOAA should be leading partner • Federal government should establish new interagency coordinating council to guide program with participation from FHWA, NOAA, and NSF at a minimum • New long-term dedicated funding within FHWA is needed • ~$25 million per year • Funds from other relevant initiatives should be highly leveraged • Must foster effective public-private-academic partnerships • Essential partners include FHWA, NOAA, NSF, AASHTO, academia, state and local governments, the private sector, and NGOs such as ITS America and AMS

7. For More Information… Contact Amanda Staudt <astaudt@nas.edu> Or visit the BASC website: www.nationalacademies.org/basc/

8. AMS Policy Forum: Weather and Highways Application of Weather Information for Road Safety and EfficiencyWilliam P. Mahoney IIINational Center for Atmospheric Research(NCAR)

9. Policy Forum: Weather & Highways • Total Attendees: 94 • Federal Agency: 18 • State: 8 • Legislative: 3 • Private Sector: 35 • Academic: 10 • Other: 20

10. Expectations “The motoring public demands passable roadways everyday no matter what the weather brings!” AASHTO Therefore, we must transition from a reactive transportation system to a proactive system with respect to weather!

11. Weather Information Requirements Better weather information will support… Winter Maintenance OperationsTraveler Safety - anti-icing chemical selection - hazard detection - optimum chemical usage - in-vehicle alerts - staff scheduling - hazard avoidance - trip planning Traffic Management Operations - predicting flow rates - managing congestion - incidence & crash response - proactive control strategies

12. Weather Information Requirements Better weather information will support… Incident Management - predicting problem areas - placement of response assets - faster cleanup Construction - paving operations - striping - project scheduling Emergency Management - first responder support - traffic control - identifying impacted corridors

13. Leveraging Opportunities We must take advantage of the huge investment we have made in our nation’s weather assets and reapply them for surface transportation. Modeling Road Weather Observations ASOS Radar Road Weather Observation Systems Satellites

14. Information CommunicationITS Architecture Weather Information Weather information is an integral part of the ITS architecture. High-resolution, tailored weather information is required. R&D is needed to develop appropriate datasets for ITS applications.

15. Weather and Highways AMS Forum Recommendations

16. Winter Maintenance Decision Support Systems [1] Overarching Recommendation • Congress should authorize and provide long-term funding for a NATIONAL ROAD WEATHER RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATIONS PROGRAM. • Multifaceted, multidisciplinary program • travelers needs • emergency management • traffic management • Incident management • maintenance and construction • Focused on user needs (travelers and operations) • Emphasize technology transfer components • Compliment existing weather and ITS capabilities

17. TRB State DOTs AASHTO National Labs Surface Transportation Weather Research & Applications Program US DOT Private Sector Universities Auto Companies NOAA UTCs ITSA [2] National Coordination Federal and State DOTs should coordinate with public, private and academic sectors to develop strategies to improve the safety and efficiency of the roadway system during adverse weather. • Aggressively implement currently • available technologies • Promote expansion of road • condition information systems • Develop weather mitigation • strategies

18. Rest area kiosk ROAD CONDITIONS [3] Data Infrastructure FHWA, NOAA, and State DOTs should develop a national weather and road condition data infrastructure to improve safety and efficiency. • Include roadway surface weather observations • National data sharing using common formats • Public data access for commercial service providers Surface observations

19. [4] Delivery of Road Weather Services NOAA, NSF, commercial weather providers, and transportation stakeholders must cooperate to improve hazardous weather detection and forecasts for surface transportation. • surface meteorology research • - fog, snow, ice, hail, rain, drifting • road/bridge condition prediction • - black ice, road frost • pavement condition sensors • information presentation

20. Maintenance Operators Transportation Managers [5] Training and Road Weather Education Training is required for highway decision makers on the benefits of utilizing weather information and education is required for travelers • Improve understanding of hazards • Develop road weather curriculum • Develop driver education programs • Driver promotional campaign on hazards

21. [6] In-Vehicle Weather Information Real time weather hazard information needs to be part of in-vehicle information systems. • Automotive manufacturer incentives • Human factor research • Optimum routing guidance • Safety related voice alerts • black ice • hail • high winds • fog • heavy rain Real-time Weather Information Here

22. Leadership of the U.S. DOT under the oversight and support of Congress is vital to improve safety and enhance mobility of our national roadway system during poor weather conditions.