Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

In Hokkaido, Japan, a system that provides road weather information to drivers is in operation and under further development. With regard to visibility in snowstorms, observation data collected at ground-level observation stations have been available, but not wide-area information on the distribution of visibilities. A method was developed to estimate visibility from the weather conditions, and it was applied to estimation of visibilities in a wide area. Such wide-area visibility information, together with snowfall information, was provided to road users on an experimental basis. Sixty percent of drivers who received this information changed their transportation behavior at some point, and more than 90% viewed the information as effective in increasing their sense of security. This finding confirmed that visibility information is valuable winter road information for drivers and that the visibility estimation method will be useful in providing wide-area visibility information.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology. Weather Information for Surface Transportation: National Needs Assessment Report. FCM-R18-2002, 2002. www.ofcm.gov/wist_report/wist-report.htm. Accessed June 16, 2005.

Pisano

P. A.

, Stern

A. D.

, Mahoney

W. P.

III , Myers

W. L.

, and Burkheimer

. Winter Road Maintenance Decision Support System Project: Overview and Status. In Transportation Research Circular, E-C063: Snow Removal and Ice Control Technology, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2004, pp. 3–17.

Yamagiwa

, Kajiya

, and Uemura

. Development of an Advanced Winter Road Management Support System for Greater Sapporo. In Transportation Research Circular E-C063: Snow Removal and Ice Control Technology, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2004, pp. 18–30.

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Road Information Provision System (in Japanese). www.its.go.jp/roadinfo/ Accessed June 14, 2005.

511 Deployment Coalition. Weather and Environmental Content on 511 Services, Deployment Assistance Report 6, 2003. www.its.dot.gov/511/PDF/511weath.pdf. Accessed June 16, 2005.

Goodwin

L. C.

Best Practices for Road Weather Management, Version 2.0, 2003. www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/weather/best_practices/CaseStudiesFINALv2-RPT.pdf. Accessed June 16 2005.

Pisano

P. A.

, Stern

A. D.

, and Mahoney

W. P.

III . The U.S. Federal Highway Administration Winter Road Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) Project: Overview and Results. Proc., 21st International Conference on Interactive Information and Processing Systems (IIPS) for Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology, 85th AMS Annual Meeting, San Diego, Calif., Jan. 9–13, 2005. ams.confex.com/ams/pdfpapers/83959.pdf. Accessed June 14, 2005.

Matsuzawa

, Kajiya

, and Takeuchi

. The Development and Validation of a Method to Estimate Visibility During Snowfall and Blowing Snow. Cold Regions Science and Technology, Vol. 41, 2005, pp. 91–109.

Tabler

R. D.

Controlling Blowing and Drifting Snow with Snow Fences and Road Design: Final Report, NCHRP Project 20-7(147), 2003. www.sicop.net/Tabler.pdf. Accessed June 16, 2005.

10.

Suzuki

, Matsuzawa

, Kajiya

, and Kanno

. Development of an Advanced Information Provision System for Winter Roads (in Japanese). Proc., 3rd ITS Symposium, ITS Japan, Nagoya, Japan, Oct. 20, 2004, pp. 71–78.

11.

Matsuzawa

, Kajiya

, and Yamagiwa

. Survey on the Effectiveness of Snowstorm Information Provision in the Winter Road Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS). Proc., 12th World Congress on ITS, ITS America (CD-ROM), San Francisco, Calif., Nov. 6–10, 2005.

Effects of the Provision of Wide-Area Snowstorm Information on Winter Driving

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References