Safety Effects of Road Weather Information System (RWIS) - A Cost-Benefit Analysis

Road Weather Information System (RWIS) is used by various transportation departments to improve their winter road maintenance services while reducing weather-related collisions during adverse weather events. However, due to its unclear effects on traffic safety and high financial investment, it is essential to quantify its safety effectiveness and assess whether it is financially feasible for statewide implementation. Several studies have looked into the benefit-to-cost ratio (BCR) of the system considering its safety benefits; however, certain biases are associated with the adopted techniques. This study addresses this issue by implementing a before-and-after study using the Empirical Bayes approach for a case study of two RWIS stations in Iowa, U.S. In addition, this study develops safety performance functions and yearly calibration factors using large scale spatial data and a set of reference locations to quantify the sole effect of an RWIS station. To this end, a detailed economic analysis is conducted to quantify the cost-effectiveness of RWIS. Results show that after the implementation of the two RWIS stations, 41.91% and 26.15% of inclement weather collisions have been reduced. The BCR for these stations is 39.97 and 9.83, respectively, indicating RWIS is an economically viable countermeasure and hence the transportation agencies can be more confident while allocating funds for its implementation.

• Record URL:
  • https://annualmeeting.mytrb.org/OnlineProgram/Details/15490
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AKR50 Standing Committee on Road Weather.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Sharma, Davesh
  • Wu, Mingjian
  • Kwon, Tae J
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 100th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2021-1-5 to 2021-1-29
• Date: 2021

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bayes' theorem; Benefit cost analysis; Empirical methods; Highway safety; Road weather information systems; Weather conditions; Winter maintenance
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01763581
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: TRBAM-21-01521
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 4 2021 10:54AM