The Finnish Road Weather Information System was developed by the Finnish National Road Administration (FINNRA) to assist in winter road maintenance. The fundamental objective was to improve safety on roads by scheduling maintenance activities better. Another objectives were to optimize the quantity of salt and to get smoother traffic. Already from the beginning of the Finnish RWIS the dissemination of the road weather information to drivers has also been an important goal.
With safer and smoother traffic in mind, FINNRA helps drivers today with an increasing amount of information on the road network's weather and conditions. Drivers are better prepared for longer times at the wheel or to postpone the trip to face better conditions. Present methods for informing the drivers are local radio broadcasts, RDS-warning-system (radio), teletext, telephone service, service point info desks, www-service in Internet, TeleSampo-system and variable message signs. The newest version of the Internet based services by FINNRA will be published at year 1998.
Largest experiment of the variable message signs is the WEATHER CONTROLLED ROAD in south-eastern Finland. The variable speed limit signs and information boards are being used on the experimental road section between the towns of Kotka and Hamina on the South coast of Finland. Length of the experiment section is about 25 kilometres, 67 variable speed limit signs and 13 info signs are controlled automatically according to weather and road surface conditions.