Connected Vehicles and Rural Road Weather Management

Each year, rural roadways experience a greater number of fatal crashes than urban roadways. Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS) have been adopted by rural transportation agencies to provide travelers better information about the impact of current weather conditions on the roadway; however, RWIS can only provide data for a specific location, and localized weather conditions require continuous high resolution road weather condition reporting. In response to the need for a more reliable system, connected vehicle (CV) technology introduced the concept of using vehicles to communicate current roadway conditions. This presentation will introduce new advances in the field of rural road weather management and provide insight into the research conducted at the University of Wyoming to implement a Connected Vehicle Road Weather Condition System.