Pilot Study of Speed-Recovery Duration as a Measure of Winter Maintenance Performance

Many state and local governments in the United States are seeking improved methods of providing winter highway maintenance to meet the increasing demands of today's drivers. Winter maintenance activity can improve road conditions for travel in terms of mobility, safety, and economic benefit. The benefits and costs of winter maintenance make it very important that these activities be completed effectively and efficiently. To improve the effectiveness and the efficiency of winter maintenance activities, the performance of the approach taken must be measured. Winter maintenance performance measures were developed on the basis of speed data from automatic traffic recorders (ATRs) and winter storm report data. An attempt was made to combine the ATR speed data and the storm report data to determine both the average vehicle speed reduction during a snow event relative to normal vehicle speeds at a location and the time needed from the minimum value to regain normal or average vehicle speeds. A determination was made related to whether this speed-recovery duration might be an appropriate performance measure for winter maintenance.