Connecting South Dakota and the Nation South Dakota’s Weather-Responsive Regional Traveler Information System David Huft, SDDOT Research Program Manager Patrick Brueggeman, SDDOT ITS Engineer Greg Ostermeier, Iteris, Inc. Road Weather Management Virtual Meeting High Plains Regional Roundtable December 9, 2015

Where We Are Now— Traveler Information Media South Dakota traveler information derives from a single, integrated system and includes: 511 since 2002 the SafeTravelUSA.com/sd website Mobile applications for Android and iPhone The ClearPath511 text and e-mail subscription service for users’ specific highways, days of week, and times of day a Twitter feed We also have Dynamic Message Signs on our Interstate highway system, They are not tightly integrated with the other traveler information elements. 2

Where We Are Now— Traveler Information Content Current road conditions Forecast weather conditions Camera images ClearPath511 road alerts Weather overlays Severe weather alerts Commercial Vehicle restrictions Traffic Incidents Congestion …on the State Highway Network All of the media feed from the same set of information on the state highway network and include: Current road conditions reported by SDDOT maintenance staff Forecast weather conditions Camera images ClearPath511 road alerts Weather overlays Some National Weather Service severe weather alerts Commercial Vehicle restrictions on weight, dimensions, and movement Traffic Incidents Congestion

Where We Are Now— Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS) Predict weather and road conditions Track applied maintenance Consider available resources Recommend treatment type, rate, timing Save material, fuel, labor Provide equal or better level of service Passing Driving South Dakota also operates a winter Maintenance Decision Support System, and is the lead state in a large pooled fund study to develop and deploy MDSS. The principle of MDSS is that if know: the characteristics of the roadway current road conditions time- and location-specific weather forecasts maintenance that has already been applied to the road people, materials, and equipment available to perform maintenance you can predict future road surface conditions, with or without maintenance, and recommend effective treatments. The first photograph compares predicted and actual road condition on a section of Interstate 29. The second shows a snowplow-mounted mobile data collector used to report vehicle location, maintenance treatments applied by the plows and material spreaders, and roadway observations from sensors and the operator;

Where We Are Now— Limitations Road conditions reported by SDDOT maintenance staff, not 24/7 Off-hours info can be outdated or misleading Travel info does not use: MDSS road condition forecasts MDC observations ESS observations Some important NWS messages Weather-related travel info does not get to DMS Currently, our traveler information has some limitations, including: road conditions are reported by SDDOT maintenance staff from early morning to early evening, but not 24/7, s off-hours information can be outdated Travel info does not use: MDSS road condition forecasts Mobile Data Collector observations Environmental Sensor Station observations Some important NWS messages Weather-related travel info does not get to DMS

MDSS-Based Threat Forecast (In the following slides, “+” indicates comments that Greg Ostermeier chose to make in the webinar presentation. “-” indicates comments that he considered, but did not actually choose to make (because of time concerns) during the webinar.) + Most prominent addition is incorporating MDSS forecasts - Most example pictures here are of website, but same information available on mobile apps, plus as applicable in reports on 511 + Considered more complicated displays and options, but settled on single view MDSS says there are "threats" from present out 24hrs + "Threats" involve set of potentially hazardous conditions MDSS may forecast (snow, road frost, etc.) - Determined for each reporting segment defined for roads (variable but on order of 20 miles) + Shown by yellow highlighting around the usual road coloring which indicate latest reported road conditions + Supplementing, not replacing whatever most recent road condition reports 6

MDSS-Based Threat Forecasts Can view base layer with threat forecast shown - Previous slide was zoom in on just the map, now showing two views with a little more context of the webpage + Threat forecast must be selected for view on map - Top is regular initial map view which does not have the threat forecast shown and is just plain road conditions - Bottom is view switched to include the threat forecast highlighting + Besides selector with other legend items, also including button on the map as applicable to try to draw more users to view - Designed to makes it easy to flip back-and-forth - User does get threat forecast as content regardless of map base layer choice when road segment selected + Segment report goes into a little more detail about what and particularly when, as opposed to map indicating something at some point

Threat Text Description 24 Hour Threat Forecast (What is this?) The following road condition threats are forecasted for 10AM CST Sat through 10AM CST Sun. Actual road conditions may vary from this forecast. Motorists are cautioned to be alert to changing conditions. from Junction South Dakota 47 North-Bowdle to Junction South Dakota 247-Roscoe lightly icy road conditions possible between approximately 9PM Sat and 7AM Sun. from Junction South Dakota 247-Roscoe to Junction South Dakota 45 South-Ipswich lightly slushy/icy road conditions possible between approximately 7PM Sat and 9AM Sun. from Junction South Dakota 45 South-Ipswich to 7.75 miles east of Junction South Dakota 45 North snowy/slushy/icy road conditions possible between approximately 7PM Sat and 6AM Sun. - Example of info from section for selected road segment (typically on order of dozens of miles w/ few to several reporting segments) - First is the description, including help link plus cautionary notes + Content is separated into pieces for road spans with different types of threats and timeframes + Logic in place to attempt to merge adjacent road spans to minimize sections + Walk through the reporting spans and combine those with same threat and timeframe similar enough + Brevity not quite as crucial for website/apps, but very important for 511 phone 8

Ease of Use About 300 people responded to an online survey to assess the ease of use and usefulness of the threat information. Nearly 95% of the respondents said they found the information easy or very easy to find. Over 90% said they found the information easy or very easy to understand. 9

Usefulness of Information Regarding the usefulness of information, approximately 85% said that they found the yellow highlighting on the threat map, text descriptions of the nature of threat, and text descriptions of the expected duration of the threat “quite useful” or “very useful”. Virtually no respondents said the information was “not at all useful”. 10

Impact on Driving Behavior Finally, respondents were asked whether the information had affected their driving behavior. About 59% said they had altered the timing of their travel. About 53% said they had altered their choice of route. About 76% said they had felt more prepared for their travel, knowing what conditions they might encounter. 11

Questions? Thank You!! Contact Contact http://safetravelusa.com/sd David L. Huft SDDOT Office of Research 700 East Broadway Pierre, SD 57501-2586 Phone: 605.773.3358 Fax: 605.773.4713 dave.huft@state.sd.us http://safetravelusa.com/sd Contact Gregory M. Ostermeier Iteris, Inc. 4324 University Ave # B Grand Forks, ND 58203 Phone: 701.792.1865 Fax: 701.792.1831 grego@iteris.com Thank You!!