Benefits
Highway System Operations
Maintenance
Highway agencies spend $2 billion a year on winter maintenance. Maintenance crews base their operational decisions on road weather information. Improving the quantity and quality of road weather-and condition-related data would make it possible for crews to respond more quickly and efficiently. Travelers would benefit from safer road conditions and quicker snow clearance. Transportation agencies would save money by avoiding unnecessary use of equipment and materials.
IntelliDriveSM-equipped vehicles could be designed to anonymously transmit information that relates to weather and road conditions, such as wiper activation, outside temperature, headlight use, traction control use; antilock braking; status of heating and defroster systems; vehicle speed; location; and altitude. Such data could be analyzed and translated into real-time information about the effects of weather on vehicle and highway operations.
The Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS) currently in use tend to be spread thinly, because RWIS sensors are expensive. RWIS systems are not always able to yield data on the direct effects of weather on vehicle and highway operations. IntelliDriveSM could supplement RWIS systems by providing greater geographic coverage, and more direct measures of the effects of weather on operations.