Title: Beyond Road Weather Information as a Decision-Making Tool in Winter Maintenance Operations: What Else is Needed?
Abstract: Road maintenance agencies, with the adoption of new equipment, materials, and new application techniques, such as liquid anti-icing and pre-wetting have witnessed forward progress in the last few years. The development and proliferation of Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS) are positive steps into the direction of more advanced winter maintenance operations. While Road Weather Information Systems are gaining acceptance and popularity, they are only tools in a tool box and they do not become useful unless they are part of an interconnected system for the operation and management of the road winter maintenance operation. Emerging technologies such as Electronic Spreader Controllers, Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) technologies, and various types of Data Collection Systems have provided more hope for improved decision-making practices and improved tracking and control of winter operations, when used along with information from RWIS. Data collection is becoming more and more crucial to the winter maintenance operations. Operations managers should be able to access valuable information, not raw data, in order to enhance the decision-making process and make it more efficient. This paper will discuss how RWIS does not work independently, and must be integrated with other systems and tools to provide proper methodologies of decision-making. The paper will also touch on what requirements that must be met before adopting a road weather information system in a decision making process.
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot