Weather and Winter Mobility Program Overview

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Weather and Winter Mobility Program Overview
Paul Pisano Weather Winter Mobility
Coordinator Office of Transportation Operations
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Weather
Affects transportation outcomes of

• Safety
• Mobility

• Productivity
• Environmental quality

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Impacts of Adverse Weather

• Direct costs
• 2 billion for snow ice control
• 5 billion for infrastructure repair
• Indirect costs
• c.7,000 fatalities, 450,000 injuries
• Traffic delays
• A one-day highway shutdown due to snow costs from
  15 to 76 million in lost time, productivity
  wages.
• Excessive use of chemicals and abrasives affects
  water and air quality

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Weather affects all road users and operators
Transit Operator
Maintainer
Traffic Manager
Transportation System
Commercial Operator
Personal Traveler
Planner
Builder
Emergency Manager
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Benefits of Road Weather Information Systems
(RWIS)

• Return on investment for RWIS ranges from 61 to
  101 for winter maintenance practices (per
  Minnesota DOT)
• RWIS and anti-icing reduces salt use
• Wisconsin DOT estimates a reduction of 37,500
  tons of salt over one season, which equals about
  1.1M saved

the Weather Winter Mobility Program aims to
extend these benefits beyond winter maintenance
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Program Goals

• Reduce the impacts (i.e., direct indirect
  costs) of adverse weather by
• Developing weather information systems that meet
  the demands of all users and operators
• Developing improved maintenance tools and
  technologies for winter mobility
• Developing road weather management practices for
  all types of weather

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Program Measures

• Achieving the goals will lead to improvements
  that align with the FHWA strategic plan
• Mobility (hours of delay)
• Productivity (operating expenses, freight
  shipments)
• Safety ( of fatalities, crashes)
• Environment (reduced chemical usage)

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Program Objectives

• 1. Strengthen the relationship between the
  transportation and meteorology communities
• 2. Improve the processing display of weather
  data (esp. decision support systems)
• 3. Develop advanced maintenance technologies
• 4. Develop road weather management practices
• 5. Develop outreach and training material

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Program Activities

• Overview of some of the projects and related
  activities taking place within the Weather
  Winter Mobility program

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Road Weather Requirements

• In 1999 we embarked on an effort to document road
  weather information requirements
• Enables us to
• work more effectively with the weather community
• develop weather-based decision support systems
• enhance the ITS Architecture to better reflect
  weather
• First phase focuses on winter maintenance
• Ver 1.0 done in 2/00 Ver 2.0 due in 7/00

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Decision Support Systems

• Objective - prototype and field test decision
  support systems for weather-based decision making
• Start with Winter Maintenance
• Future efforts for Travelers, Traffic Emergency
  Managers

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Foretell - Field Test
combines advanced road condition prediction
with other types of traveler information
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Screen Capture of the Foretell System
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Automated Spraying Systems
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Road Weather Management
Incorporating weather information into traffic
operations...
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Hurricane Related Activities

• Post-storm efforts
• State assessments
• FEMA study on Hurricane Floyd
• Next steps
• Regional workshop June, 2000
• Traffic control plans
• Interstate lane reversal
• Standardizing evacuation operations
• Update existing evacuation routes
• Information sharing - internal cross-agency
• Improving web sites

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Outreach Efforts

• Eastern Snow and Ice Conference
• September 6-7, Roanoke, VA
• In conjunction with the TRB 5th Symposium on Snow
  Removal and Ice Control Technology
• Developing RWIS Training Material with AASHTO
  Snow and Ice Cooperative Program
• Peer-to-peer technical assistance information
  exchange
• Revising and expanding our web page

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FY2000 Projects

• Prototype Maintenance Decision Support System
• Assimilation of Road Condition Observations
• Environmental Sensor Station Investment and Road
  Condition Forecasting
• Expansion of Road Weather Requirements

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For Further Information

• Paul Pisano
• FHWA, HOTO-1
• 400 7th St., SW
• Washington, D.C. 20590

202-366-1301 paul.pisano_at_fhwa.dot.gov www.ops.fhwa
.dot.gov