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Web-based Road Monitoring
James Evans writes "The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) are testing a Web-based system for weather forecasting and winter road treatment that could soon save lives, cut costs, and help keep millions of drivers on the move. Highway officials and road crews in Des Moines and Ames, Iowa, will test the Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) February 3 to April 4. The MDSS uses several computer models to project hour-by-hour weather and road conditions up to two days in advance, with an update every three hours."
Smog!
Would this technology use RFIDs too?
Hacking the Network
Most of the time when people go driving they dont check the what the weather will be in two days.
unzip; strip; touch; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; unmount; sleep
If you crash in the real world, does your browser crash too?
Beep. Boop. Beep. You have questions. I have answers and your home address.
Weather Road Condition
Rain Wet
Snow Snow
Sunny Dry
Very Cold Ice
Tornado Windy
End of the World Run for the hills you fool!
For once, the US goverment spends some money in something useful to the society in general. :)
These are great measures against the deaths and injuries that every year happen in every road. That's something that the EU countries should copy from the US
KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid!
But it strikes me that cutting costs in this manner could hurt more than help. A lot of people watch TV news (I don't, but then, I have ./) for the weather report. There is a reason they leave the weather until the end (always pissed me off), and competition for the State would be harsh. Anyway, I'm not advocating TV broadcasting corps, 'cause they are money-grubbing sobs, but the economy they provide is not insignificant. Advertizements would cost more, since they'd have fewer viewers, and ads theoretically help drive the little guys in the economy.
I support their efforts, for a safer and more informed existance, but I hope they look at the ramifications before potentially displacing a market.
I used to live on a mountain and came down several times a week. It would often start snowing while I was off the mountain and I would call the Highway Patrol to ask about the roads. There were 2 highways I could take and, invariably, the Highway Patrol would tell me that both were unsafe and that I should not drive on either.
Luckily, I only took their word for it the first time. I drove a Geo Metro (the only way I could afford the gas with the mileage I was putting on at the time) and never had any problem whatsoever with either highway.
I hope this system doesn't default to "roads are unsafe" or else people will stop bothering to check.
The truth doesn't care what I think.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Just last week the weather forcast said dangerous windchills would descend on the area. They neglected to mention that snow was coming with it too, which means a BIZZARD! You can drive through cold wind, but you can't drive through 0 visibility.
What is worse, local weather is forcast from more than 800km away. The forecaster can't even look out the window to see if their satellite is lagging or not.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
of Web-enabled roads! Oh, wait, they call those "highways". But seriously, it would take a distributed computing system of impressive strength to predict with decent accuracy what frozen precipitate will come down next. Why hasn't anyone thought of that before? Oh wait, someone has.
the people that live in the southern US from frekaingo ut when they get some snow and then forget how to drive and have a 90 car pile up?
upstate NY 4' of snow in 02-03 and counting!
... or some other such communication system were used. It could be set up on Highway Patrol cars (already on the road) and send up to the minute data combined with GPS for location.
So, if you had (n)cars on the road in a given area, you could tell the weather at all the doughnut shops in the state.
"We currenty undergoing heavy traffic jam due to the newest MS SQL bug which already had a fix from January 2016. No matter your road status, remain at full stop until further notice."
View predicted weather and road conditions monitor the potential for deteriorating road conditions.
Predict the impact of upcoming weather on specific road segments.
Assess treatment recommendations based on proven rules of practice.
Devise a plan for anti-icing, deicing, plowing, or other road treatment.
If you ask me, it still looks like they have to physically go out there and do something if it snows. It appears it will only be of major use if the roads are too dangerous to drive on and they can close the roads, or if travelers actually check predicted road conditions before they go traveling.
Regardless, they still have to anti-ice, d-ice, plow, etc. So this wont do any good to the traveler who is already on the road approaching said segment of highway/freeway/road to no where.
Altho I do think its a wonderful way to monitor many different roadways and see which ones need to be treated and which ones dont, which in the long run could save money and lives anyway.
Take it as you will.
I regularly travel from Toronto to Northern Ontario, and it can be a real pain - you drive through 3 snow-belts on the way to SSM.
Here's the site I check before I drive:
Road Conditions
Also handy to call someone (when you have cellular service) and ask them to check the road ahead. I just wish they'd update the site more often.
I live in RI, but drive all around southern new england. We probably have the worst roads...ever...And by the list on the site, the states aren't included. How is this possible! The rain/snow line that is the Mass Turnpike is just ugly when weather strikes. It would be nice to have even a barebones forecast.
While they are at it, maybe they can revamp the DMV as well.
At first I though? What? Why are they testing this in Iowa? Then, I saw the light . . .
As a Des Moines native and a student at Iowa State University in Ames, I can see why they picked these roads. The sections of highway that were picked for this test have very predictable traffic patterns. One can always count on the Des Moines "rush-15-minutes" and the commute from surrounding small towns to Des Moines. By using roads in a smaller city, with very predictable traffic patterns, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the Federal Highway Administration have eliminated many of the variables associated with larger cities.
Of course, this probably means that Iowa State University will be less likely to cancel classes due to poor road conditions . . . but I'm a Computer Engineer, so it's not like I have anything better to do than to go to class. :-)
I just drove from Cincinnati to Lexington and I didn't see a single snow plow or salt truck. Not one. An entire lane of a three-lane interstate highway was snowed over. Useless. Several cars were off the road. One SUV was flipped. Three inches of snow was already on the ground with more falling. It wouldn't take a gadget to tell somebody at the DOT to uproot somebody's ass and get them out working on the roads today.
The Surgeon General has determined that the operation of the slashdot blog while under the influence of amphetamines is contraindictated, largely as a result of reading the parent post.
Web-based Road Monitoring!!! more like celda
http://www.met-office.gov.uk/roads/about.html
However, a system which aims to provide better information about traffic congestion to individual drivers can have the unexpected consequence of making congestion worse --- one study by Mahmassani and Jayakrishnan showed that when individuals use a best response strategy the performance of the system as a whole degrades if more than 25% of drivers have access to real time traffic information.
We show how this concentration effect works in a paper on the El Farol bar problem titled "Coordination Failure as a Source of Congestion in Information Networks" (download from here) --- when agents have "too much" information they are unable to successfully coordinate their behavior.
foldplay your photos won't know what hit them.
I know that this system is designed for those who maintain the roads, but would it not benefit to have realtime conditions as well. Predictions for two days in advanced seems a bit overpredicting, as it is reality that counts ...
This article seems to call these systems Maintenance Decision Support Systems (MDSS). But the term I am used to seeing is Road Weather Information System (RWIS), which are used for the same reasons. I guess that RWIS's could be part of MDSS's; Pennsylvania (as well as other states) use theirs to help predict where to send snowplows, etc.
RWIS's are also often found online. Pennsylvania's RWIS is online here. You can click on any region, click on a station, and get live video, if the road is wet ("chemcial wet"==salted), what the temperature/wind speed is, etc. Pennsylvania also has self-salting bridges in a few spots; I don't know of any in other states, but it just might be me.
Ohio (not listed as an MDSS member) also has their own RWIS system (also called RWIS), although it presently covers only a few select areas.
I should note that even if you check a RWIS/MDSS, be aware that weather conditions can change quickly. The National Weather Service and the MDSS/RWIN you use might show only light snow, but don't be surprised if you have to seek shelter in a hotel overnight.
No definitions found for "contraindictated", perhaps you mean:
web1913: Contraindicated
NICE TRY MISTAR SMARTEY MAN!!!~1
..the next Microsoft Vulnerability is used to DOS everything? I am not saying this is a bad idea but after the last few days of problems I can see this system falling flat on it's back which is worrying when the introduction mentioned 'save lives'.
just a thought
Mark.
---- There are 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand binary and those that don't
...we've had this kind of service offered by Finnish Road Administartion for years, I believe it was opened in 98-99 or so. It's in English too, you can check it out here. It has been a great help many times. Especially those dozens of almost-real-time weather cameras by roads all over the country are very nifty. This one, for example, is quite near where I was born. Pretty sad picture at the moment :(
It would be great if they could combine this system with a traffic monitoring system. I would rather know the traffic 20 minutes in advance. It would be great if my navigation system would tell me, "take these back roads, you dont want to see whats coming ahead..." or "you might as well stay home for an extra 1/2 hour..."
A few of the ones I use. Not in english.
Traffic
The above link has a great replay function so you can see when there are heavy traffic and or just not moving at all. So it makes it easier to plan ahead if it is possible. road work
In the winter months Road temperature
These are always good to check in the office before leaving.
And then there is the webcams from the roads which I guess has no useful purposes for the average websurfer.
my sig
It doesn't predict the weather, but it's cool to check out the current temp.
My Weather station
Live web cams
Using the web to manage highway traffic and weather conditions?
So now the creators of Code-red and other worms, (not to mention microsoft servers' developers) will start to claim not only big DDoS's and network messes, but also, ROADKILLS! Nice...
I can see the ads for Norton Anti-Virus 22: lets you protect your data, your computer, your car and your life from evildoers! "Merci Johnson!"
Hello! I'm a disaster waiting to happen!
Being from the east coast, I'm sick of people with the attitude that the only thing that comes out of iowa is corn. Iowa has one of the highest SAT averages in the nation, and some of the best universities, such as Iowa State and University of Iowa. Beleive it or not, there is a world outside of California, New York, and Philadelphia.
Our local weather forecasters use "sophisticated computer models" to predict the weather, too, and it doesn't seem to do them much good. They only get it right about half the time. If road maintenance services were tied to their predictions, we'd be in a world of hurt. No matter how fancy your models may be, nothing beats the old-fashioned -- "hey look, it's snowing outside, better dispatch the plows." Or for a somewhat more predictive approach -- "hey look, the doppler says it's raining an hour upwind from here and the temp is below freezing! Better salt the roads."
Fried ice cream is a reality. - George Clinton
I live in Des Moines, and I rather like it. Nothing against Iowa, but why is this being done here....? Des Moines isn't exactly a commuters nightmare, nor is the road system that complex. I guess ISU has something to do with this, but i'm guessing it won't ever affect me.
Iowa doesn't spread salt on the roads in the winter. They spread sand instead, doing nothing about the snow and ice, instead helping out traction a bit. It's clearly a cost-cutting measure; one so grossly abused that every spring hundreds of Iowa kids write the governor complaining that it's unsafe to ride their bicycles until late summer.
With this in mind let me kindly suggest that Iowa is not a good real-world laboratory for winter time road management experiments. Thank you spin-your-tires through.
--
There is no hatred more pure and true than that expressed by children.
Actually, it was developed by Atanasoff as a professor in the Physics and Mathematics departments. Ames Lab was more concerned with developing metals and refining plutonium for the Manhattan Project (which happened to cause a nice explosion which blew out a wall in one of the buildings on campus while they were playing with magnesium).
Iowa is a good place to raise a family, but that's about it. Only 1 in 4 Iowa State students will stay in Iowa after they graduate. The majority of people that live in Iowa are either farmers, old, or have been there all their lives and never went beyond high school. It's pretty sad when I get off the plane from DC and look around at the people at the airport - all old people.
BTW, I also happen to live right near the DOT in Ames. I was surprised to see a story featuring Ames/Des Moines of all places.
I sig for world peace
It makes sense to test this system on roads that will rarely be used. That way, if the system turns out to be flawed, you're only disrupting the lives of potato farmers.
as coined by senator AL Gore in 1988.
San Antonio has had a weather and road conditions site for
several years now http://www.transguide.dot.state.tx.us/index.php
that even has cameras Big Brother is out there.