Pathfinder: Communicating Road Weather Impacts to the Traveling Public

Quantitative and anecdotal evidence has demonstrated that motorists respond to high-impact road weather forecast messages more consistently when the forecast information they receive from disparate media outlets contains the same travel impact message across all outlets. However, a multitude of forecasting and transportation entities within a given geographical area will release their own forecast for road weather information prior to a storm, placing the burden of aggregating and weighing the information on the traveling public themselves, and decreasing the effectiveness of the intended public decision support services supplied by these entities.

A key mission shared among State DOTs and the NWS is to improve safety, mobility and the economy. Essential to accomplishing this mission is communicating information to the public to support their decision-making and preparedness when faced with rain, snow, fog, wind, flooding or other potentially impactful weather on the surface transportation system. Additionally, Pathfinder is being used for planned special events for the traveling public. Through collaboration on a road weather impact message, both the DOT and the NWS can better serve the needs of the public and accomplish their mission.

This presentation will provide an overview of Pathfinder and lessons learned over the years from the DOT perspective.