Utah DOT Weather Responsive Traffic Signal Timing

Over the past decade, Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Road Weather Management Program (RWMP) has championed the cause of improving traffic operations and safety during weather events. The program’s current emphasis is to encourage agencies to be more proactive in the way that they manage traffic operations during weather events. Weather Responsive Traffic Management (WRTM) is the central component of the program’s efforts. WRTM involves the implementation of traffic advisory, control, and treatment strategies in direct response to or in anticipation of developing roadway and visibility issues that result from deteriorating or forecasted weather conditions. WRTM also includes using weather forecasting to provide proactive advisories, control, and maintenance strategies In 2011, the RWMP initiated a project to document recent developments in WRTM, identify improvements to the strategies, and develop implementable Concepts of Operations. As a follow-on task, three concepts were selected for further implementation and real-world deployment. This report describes the implementation of one particular concept relating to weather responsive traffic signal management by Utah DOT. The report contains the system design, operation, evaluation approach, findings and lessons learned from the implementation.\n