2017 Road Weather Management Performance Measures Update

Chapter 6. Recommendations and Conclusions

The Road Weather Management Program (RWMP) performance update continues to benefit from strong stakeholder input and the various data maintained by the program. The survey conducted under this update continued to get a high response rate (82 percent) from State departments of transportation (DOT), providing a comparable dataset to the 2015 report. Survey results and key findings by performance measure are provided in Appendices A and B.

Based on the results of the 2017 performance measure update, the following five recommendations are identified for consideration by the RWMP program:

1. Create a national database of State DOT performance measures and reports. The findings from this update show a significant number of States starting to consider performance measures, and several report that they already have a process. A national repository of performance measures and reports used by State DOTs is helpful for a State that is beginning to consider implementing performance measures. While it is possible to obtain these reports on a State-by-State basis, collecting them in one location will allow for more detailed understanding of the different approaches used by State DOTs.
2. Reengage in Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) outreach. In recent years, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has not focused on promoting MDSS deployment. With MDSS maturing, it was a rational approach to move away from MDSS towards new research priorities. However, in both 2015 and 2017, there is evidence of stagnation of MDSS adoption. This might warrant a re-examination of the challenges associated with deploying MDSS and options for sharing best practices and case studies in this area. With emerging technologies like Integrated Mobile Observations (IMO), the value of MDSS as a tool to ingest complex data streams and provide meaningful input to road weather management (RWM) operations and maintenance staff increases.
3. Continue to showcase the value of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) application deployment. The report finds that V2I deployment is still in early stages. With emerging guidelines on Connected Vehicle-Enabled Weather Responsive Traffic Management (CV-WRTM) and other connected vehicle efforts underway nationally, the FHWA RWMP should continue to promote weather-related use cases in V2I deployment. Ongoing CV-WRTM implementations and the Wyoming connected vehicle pilot offer some near-term opportunities.
4. Develop a plan for accelerating awareness and deployment of weather-responsive traffic analysis tools. Unfortunately, as the report and the previous update reveals, there is very little awareness or use of some of the analytical tools developed by the road weather management program. The RWMP's early efforts in conducting empirical studies on traffic flow during inclement weather and microscopic analysis of traffic flow during adverse weather provide valuable information to agencies deploying WRTM. Existing tools like the Weather-Responsive Traffic Estimation and Prediction System and future tools like the Integrated Road Condition Modeling and Prediction System offer real opportunities to RWM stakeholders for decision support during stressful operating conditions. This low level of awareness is not particular to RWMP; other tools focused on travel reliability have also seen only a low level of uptake among the stakeholder community. With the variety of tools available, it is also difficult for a stakeholder to identify the right tool for the right analysis. To this end, a primer on the use of weather-responsive analysis tools by road weather management professionals is needed.
5. Sustain Weather Savvy Roads (WSR) interest and implementation plans. Significant increases in State DOT participation have been noted due to the interest in the WSR initiative. A large number of States have expressed interest in implementing either IMO or Pathfinder or both aspects of the initiative. Maintaining the momentum and continuing to monitor and support implementation plans beyond the Every Day Counts-4 initiative period is critical to ensuring that these efforts are mainstreamed within the organization and the advances can meaningfully result in capability maturity at the agencies. A significant part of future updates of the report will likely be based on how State DOTs have moved forward in the implementation of IMO and Pathfinder activities.

To conclude, the current update of the performance measure continues to show a vibrant stakeholder community, new and strengthened partnerships, and sustained use of available technologies for road weather management. The greatest advancements in program performance are a result of the focus brought forward by the Weather Savvy Roads initiative, though work still needs to be done on educating the stakeholder community about the use of decision-support, analysis, and modeling tools. National level trends continue to show the magnitude of the problem, but few case studies were observed documenting benefits since the previous update. As noted in the recommendations, interest among the stakeholder community in performance measurement, V2I deployment, and WSR offer new opportunities for the program to engage and encourage new State DOTs and partners to be part of the national road weather management community.