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https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27432/critical-issues-in-transportation-for-2024-and-beyond

Improviment of the road weather information process

Kelitiedotusprosessin uudistaminen. Nykyisen ja tulevan prosessin kuvaus

The Finnish Road Administration provides five road weather information services, some of which in co-operation with its partners: 24 hour road weather forecast (Liikennesaa-palvelu), wide area road weather forecast for the text TV, current road weather & 6 hour forecast for main roads, road weather station information & road weather camera pictures, and traffic warnings issued as a result of poor road weather conditions. The contents of the services vary from nationwide road weather forecast to information on precipitation and temperature on road surface at a specific point on the road. In addition, information is distributed to companies who are providing commercial traffic information services. There is a keen interest in improving these services as they all serve to cut down the number of road accidents, decrease congestion and to increase customer satisfaction by allowing drivers to adjust their speed and departure times. Services have been distributed mainly on the radio and TV, but lately the internet has emerged as a viable alternative. The Finnish Road administration does not provide services on the GPS navigators, but instead allows private companies to use all of its road weather data to create services for them. Car navigators are proliferating and they are likely to become an important channel for on-line road weather information. The current set of services is considered to be good and reliable by its customers. Surveys show that drivers heed warnings given and act accordingly. Road weather service production could be partly outsourced, freeing resources at Traffic Management Centre which is now participating heavily on it. Road maintenance contractors are obliged to report on prevailing road weather conditions and provide forecasts. This can be considered a futile activity, as equally reliable and timely information can be obtained from other sources. The project for improving road weather condition services was coordinated with the project to overhaul Traffic Management Centre and the project to collect, process and distribute weather related data (used as an ingredient of road weather condition services). As a result of this project, there are four main areas of improvement: the services and their distribution channels, the production process and the collection of weather data for the services. It is proposed that the current main service of Liikennesaa (Nation wide road weather forecast) will be supplemented with essentially new service named Tiejaksokeli (literally "weather service for a road section"). It will be offered as a public service and feature pinpoint information on road weather conditions and make a 6 hours forecast including the projected effects of road maintenance activities. The production will be highly automated and based on three successful technology pilots.This report may be found at http://alk.tiehallinto.fi/julkaisut/pdf2/3201100-vkelitiedotusprosessin_uudistaminen.pdf

Language

  • Finnish

Media Info

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Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01125200
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: TRL
  • ISBN: 978-952-221-089-0
  • Files: ITRD
  • Created Date: Mar 30 2009 6:49AM