Extended Abstract (1004K)4B.4
Impacts of weather and climate on commercial motor vehicles
Michael A. Rossetti, Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, Cambridge, MA; and M. Johnsen
Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) carriers -- large trucks and buses -- have insufficient information on weather conditions, and how such conditions may impact their vehicles, general traffic conditions, road surfaces, and driver responses to various weather phenomena. This need for information may also extend to how climatic changes in weather might increase certain types of risks to CMV operations. This paper seeks to determine possible geospatial relationships among specific storm systems and climatologies and CMV accidents or accident clusters. Other types of weather conditions that may affect safety or cause rerouting or uses of different modes, including regional flooding, drought, etc., will be analyzed for their impacts on crashes and safety. Climate change impacts include the possible effects on infrastructure and vehicles of more frequent or more intense storms, precipitation and winds, extremes of temperature, etc. The paper plans to correlate databases on weather-related crashes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration with archived weather data available from the National Climatic Data Center and other sources.
Session 4B, Impacts of Climate Changes (continued)
Monday, 21 January 2008, 4:00 PM-5:30 PM, 217-218
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