Public Transportation Decision Making Given DOT Products During Winter Weather Events

Every year there are thousands of traffic accidents and hundreds of fatalities directly related to winter precipitation and the risks that come with it. Despite government sources, such as the Department of Transportation (DOT), providing the most up to date information about the current road conditions, there is still significant room for improvement in communication efforts. The DOTs often publish road conditions on their respective websites, though each site is inconsistent about the level of detail that is provided or how it is accessed meaning the public's level of decision making varies widely from place to place. This inequitable information availability means that there is an advantage to those in certain states who have access to all the products and disadvantage to those states who don’t, which then inherently causes the decision to travel during winter weather to vary widely by region. Improving the overall consistency of warnings and information availability across the nation may further build trust in DOT sources, which facilitates increased driver safety and site usage by the public. To identify the effectiveness of available DOT tools, a survey was designed to gauge the public's response to currently available tools during a hypothetical winter weather scenario. The scenario includes a pre-storm, in-storm, and post-storm environment to understand how driver’s resource needs change with respect to conditions. The tools assessed include road closure information, road slickness conditions, simulated snow plow locations, simulated traffic cameras, electronic road sign information, and simulated information. Some of these tools can be found on every DOT site, however, many do not feature electronic signs or snow plow locations which may facilitate greater local condition awareness for drivers. By implementing even just the most effective tool onto each DOT website, it may help facilitate a level of consistency and trust with the public who use this information to make decisions and may facilitate better driver safety across the nation.