Winter Travel Safety: Road-Weather Monitoring

Travelling is our everyday need–we travel to work, school, shopping, and many other places every single day. But driving in winter is a horrible experience for the travelers specially in cold region countries. In Canada, about 3,000 people died every year due to winter accidents, and over one in 135 people experience winter driving-related injuries annually. Preventing these tragedies is a complex and challenging task nowadays, which can be largely tackled by Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS), that play a critical role in decreasing traffic congestion and improving travel safety by reducing winter accidents. RWIS implementation strategy of Canadian provinces are envisioned to monitor its extensive road network that often experiences severe and diverse winter weather conditions. High costs of RWIS stations along with the need to provide monitoring coverage of Canada’s vastly varied road network in different topographic settings (i.e., flatland, hilly and mountainous areas) necessitate a strategical and scientific approach to the planning of its RWIS network. My PhD research is aimed at addressing this need by developing guidelines to strategically plan and optimize regional RWIS network, which in turn will benefit the citizens with improved travel safety, mobility and more environmentally sustainable transportation system.