Techniques for Efficient Detection of Rapid Weather Changes and Analysis of their Impacts on a Highway Network

Adverse weather conditions have a significant impact on the safety, mobility, and efficiency of highway networks. Annually, 24 percent of all crashes, more than 7,400 roadway fatalities, and over 673,000 crash related injuries were caused by adverse weather conditions between 1995 and 2005 [1]. In addition, weather contributed to 23 percent of all non-reoccurring delay and approximately 544 million vehicle hours of delay each year [2]. Nearly 2.3 billion dollars each year are spent by transportation agencies for winter maintenance that contribute to close to 20 percent of most departments of transportation's (DOTs') yearly budgets [2]. These safety and mobility factors make it important to develop new and more effective methods to address road conditions during adverse weather conditions. This proposal focuses on the analysis of rapid (or sudden) weather changes, a special category of adverse weather conditions that are important but have not been well-studied in the transportation field. The proposed research investigates methods for efficiently detecting rapid weather changes and analyzing their impacts on the characteristics of a highway network. The proposed research will investigate efficient and effective methods for: (1) detecting rapid weather changes in a highway network using the streaming weather information from a sensor network of weather stations; (2) analyzing the impacts of rapid weather changes on the characteristics of a highway network, including speed, travel time, and congestion; and 3) forecasting short-term traffic flow conditions (e.g., speeds, volumes) of the highway network following the occurrence of rapid weather changes.

• Record URL:
  http://www.utrc2.org/research/projects/techniques-efficient-detection-rapid-weather-changes

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $74462
• Contract Numbers:

  49198-39-28

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  University Transportation Research Center

  City College of New York
  Marshak Hall, Suite 910, 160 Convent Avenue
  New York, NY  United States  10031
• Project Managers:

  Eickemeyer, Penny

• Performing Organizations:

  State University of New York, Albany

  1400 Washington Avenue
  Albany, NY  United States  12222
• Principal Investigators:

  Lawson, Catherine

• Start Date: 20160901
• Expected Completion Date: 20170831
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Detection and identification systems; Forecasting; Highways; Impacts; Networks; Real time information; State departments of transportation; Traffic flow; Traffic speed; Traffic volume; Travel time; Weather conditions; Weather stations
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Environment; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01609381
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: University Transportation Research Center
• Contract Numbers: 49198-39-28
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Aug 30 2016 3:18PM