Surface Transportation Impacts

Adverse weather causes countless traffic fatalities as well as innumerable hours lost to traffic congestion. Delays caused by snow, rain, ice, wind, and fog cost time and money to commuters, businesses, and delivery systems. The Pikalert® MAW provides hyper-local, near real-time road weather information for the traveling public. Incorporating Connected-Vehicle data, the tool provides current information on visibility, road condition, and road precipitation. Using the MAW, drivers will be able to schedule and plan routes in advance. While on the road, a mobile application keeps drivers abreast of changing road weather conditions.

Benefits and Impacts

Determining Ideal Time to Treat Winter Roads

This technology has been adopted by private sector firms and State DOTs saving states millions of dollars annually in anti-icing materials and staff time. A USDOT benefits study indicated that the annual net benefit of using MDSS outweighed the costs, by significant amounts, ranging from $2.68 million to $488,000 in New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Colorado. Indiana DOT saved $12M in one winter using the MDSS.

Predicting Hazardous Road Conditions

The Pikalert® system has been adopted by a number of organizations to push road hazard alerts to drivers in private and commercial vehicles, increasing safety on our roads and interstate highways.

Contact

Please direct questions/comments about this page to:

Amanda Anderson

Associate Scientist IV

Curtis Walker

Proj Scientist II