In Finland, a road weather information system was estimated to improve response times for road treatments, decrease the duration of slippery road conditions by 10 to 30 minutes, and eliminate 3 to 17 percent of crashes.

Date Posted

09/21/2000

Finland

Identifier

2007-B00500

Road Weather Service System in Finland and Savings in Driving Costs

Summary Information

The Finnish National Road Administration has developed a road weather service system, for both road maintenance personnel and road users, with the primary objective being to improve the monitoring of road weather conditions so that winter maintenance can be carried out systematically and at the right time. The system is an automated information system that sends actual and forecast weather and road surface information to those responsible for road maintenance. It consists of 11 central stations, about 200 workstations, and about 150 observation stations.

FINDINGS

The duration of slippery road condition has been estimated to shorten 10-30 minutes per de-icing activity, which decreases the chance for accidents caused by slipperiness. Improvement in response to maintenance activities would decrease accidents 3 to 17 percent depending on the district and the winter.