Skip to main content

FHWA’s weather guidelines for road users

The tremendous growth in the amount of available weather and road condition information—including devices that gather weather information, models and forecasting tools for predicting weather conditions, and electronic devices used by travellers — has led the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to develop effective and specific guidelines for communicating road weather information in a way that is consistent with what travellers need, want, and will use when making travel decisions.
August 21, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
The tremendous growth in the amount of available weather and road condition information—including devices that gather weather information, models and forecasting tools for predicting weather conditions, and electronic devices used by travellers — has led the 2410 Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to develop effective and specific guidelines for communicating road weather information in a way that is consistent with what travellers need, want, and will use when making travel decisions.

This project, Testing and Evaluation of Preliminary Design Guidelines for Disseminating Road Weather Advisory & Control Information, builds upon the earlier Human Factors Analysis of Road Weather Advisory and Control Information project which was initiated to assist transportation officials in communicating both pre-trip and enroute road weather information effectively, consistently, and timely to meet the needs of travellers for different weather conditions and travel scenarios. This earlier project resulted in preliminary guidelines.

For the current 122-page publication, these preliminary guidelines were disseminated to a broad group of transportation and road weather officials for review and use.

These reviewers included staff from private agencies and State Department of Transportation (DoT) staff working at traffic management centres. Evaluation of the guidelines followed through end user surveys, on-site interviews and discussions, and application of the preliminary guidelines to assess their suitability and effectiveness for traffic operations. Valuable feedback provided by these end users was used to modify the preliminary guidelines and develop the revised guidelines.

The 122-page report can be downloaded from this link: %$Linker: External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45600/45623/FinalPackage_JPO-12-046_V1.pdf 122-page report false http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/45000/45600/45623/FinalPackage_JPO-12-046_V1.pdf false false%>

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Loadrite introduces its 360° load-out management system
    April 18, 2013
    The new Loadrite 360° management system has been designed to boost efficiency in quarries by integrating communication across all stages of an order for faster turnarounds and maximised payloads. Loadrite said that the system improves communication throughout the load-out operations. It is aimed at providing quarry managers with the tools they need to get the most from both staff and equipment. Benefits include lower costs per tonne and optimised truck utilisation, said the company.
  • ERF calls for better safety in Europe´s Work Zones
    May 14, 2015
    The European Road Federation will soon go on the road to promote greater work zone safety “As previous European projects (e.g. ARROWS) have already made proposals for the design of work zones at EU level, it was essential to avoid duplication and find an angle that would provide true added value” The European Commission has just unveiled the road safety statistics for 2014, which point to an overall slowdown in the momentum for casualty reduction achieved over the past few years. While the annual red
  • Fugro organising road maintenance event in UK
    May 16, 2013
    Survey specialist, Fugro Aperio is organising the one day Developments in Highways Assessment (DIHA 2013) conference. This event takes place on July 16th, 2013, at the Midlands Engineering Centre in the UK city of Birmingham. The use of survey data in predictive modelling for improved highways asset management will be a particular focus at the DIHA 2013 conference in July. Richard Barnes will highlight Stockport Council’s work to develop a model for strategic road maintenance investment integrating local co
  • RIA airport in Liberia announces major renovation project as Rwanda unveils a $5.9m upgrade of Kamembe airport
    September 30, 2014
    Liberia Airport Authority (LAA) is inviting expressions of interest in the expansion and renovation of the current Roberts International Airport (RIA). The Liberian government wants to create a “state-of-the-art airport facility.” This will help the facility to handle at least 450, 000 per annum in the near future and become a key hub for air transport in West Africa region. The construction works will entail setting up of cargo handling facility, cargo storage and processing facilities. According to Afric