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Web-based Road Monitoring

Posted by michael on from the steer-into-the-spin dept.

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."

5 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. Prediction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Smog!

  2. Traffic vs. Traffic by Radio+Shack+Robot · · Score: 2, Funny

    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.
  3. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  4. What if "On-Star"... by SoSueMe · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... 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.

  5. More useful by Gary+Franczyk · · Score: 4, Funny

    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..."