Impacts of Weather on Rural Highway Operations
The final report of this FHWA "Showcase Evaluation" by Manjunathan Kumar and Shaowei Wang of the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University examines "non-recurrrent congestion" caused by weather events in rural areas. Most of the studies to date have examined urban congestion, both recurring and non-recurrent.
Satisfyingly, the first research examining weather impacts on traffic is that by Rashad Hanbali and David Kuemmel of Marquette University -- the well-known, Salt Institute-sponsored "Marquette Report." The Salt Institute has used findings to show the safety benefits of roadway deicing and the comparative advantage of using straight salt over salt-sand mixtures to keep winter roads safe. This study draws on the same database to document that snowfall directly correlates to traffic volume reduction. Less than an inch of snow, for example will reduce traffic volume by 7 - 17% while a nine-inch storm will cut traffic by over 40%. Worth having in your library.
