Road Weather Connected Vehicle Applications

Progress and Insights

Connected Vehicle Road Weather Progress (2010 – 2014)

• Advanced the use of connected vehicle data to help improve winter operations and road weather forecasts.  
  • Instrumented and collected data from over 600 vehicles owned by the MI, MN, & NV DOTs
  • Collected, quality checked, and disseminated observations from fixed and mobile platforms
  • Applied algorithms to mobile data with ancillary weather data to determine current and forecasted road weather conditions
  • Created applications using mobile data for maintenance decision support and traveler information
• Promoted use of sensor and communications standards, worked with the weather community to develop quality control algorithms, and defined the best methods for data sharing and processing.
• Developed a national, open observing system called Clarus, for promoting data sharing to support weather observations and forecasting and transportation operations. More recently the Weather Data Environment (WxDE) was developed to extend the successes of the Clarus system. All Clarus data sources have been transitioned to the WxDE. In addition mobile observations from vehicles have been added to the WxDE.
• Developed a Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS), which is a state-of-the-art solution that provides winter maintenance treatment recommendations to maintenance managers based on route-specific predicted weather and pavement conditions and an agency’s snow and ice control policies. Enhanced the prototype MDSS with Connected Vehicle data to provide spot specific road weather forecasts and recommendations. This led to the development of the Enhanced Maintenance Decision Support Systems application (EMDSS).
• Developed resources and training methods to assist state and local partners in deployment of weather management tools. Several advanced weather responsive management strategies were proven and implemented by traffic managers.
• Advanced the state-of-the-practice by developing proactive solutions and disseminating information on adverse weather. Developed the Motorists Advisories and Warnings application which uses Connected Vehicle data to provide spot specific road weather advisories and warnings in near real time.
• Collaborated and coordinated across the transportation and weather communities to facilitate technical and institutional integration within and across agencies. The program also initiated the Pathfinder Project to facilitate collaboration and coordination among State DOTs and the weather enterprise.