South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT) Regional Traveler Information System for Weather Responsive Traffic Management

Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Road Weather Management Program (RWMP) strives to promote the development and implementation of cutting-edge techniques for maintaining safety, mobility, and productivity of roadways during adverse weather conditions. The FHWA RWMP partnered with the South Dakota DOT to develop and implement a Weather Responsive Traffic Management (WRTM) strategy that involves mobile data collection and traveler information dissemination during weather events. A concept of operations and an evaluation plan were developed and utilized in the project. The objectives of the system were to improve the efficiency of road condition data collection, increase the number and frequency of road condition reports, improve and expand road weather information provided to travelers, enhance the perceived benefits to travelers from the new traveler information, and support partner agencies that can use the new traveler information. This report documents the development, implementation and evaluation of the system. Overall, the evaluations indicate that travelers value road condition forecasts. Furthermore, after viewing road condition forecasts, the travelers’ either changed the timing or routing of their trips, or felt more prepared for them. The report also contains lessons learned and recommendations based on the evaluation results.