Usability of Statewide Web-Based Roadway Weather Information System

Abstract

A study of the usability of statewide web-based traveler information systems was conducted to assess their effectiveness in conveying road and weather information to travelers. Guidelines from traveler information systems and the website design literature were coalesced to create an assessment framework to include important elements from a user’s perspective. Ninety-eight travelers from the State College, Pennsylvania, area visited web-based roadway weather information systems for Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Ohio as part of a laboratory-based trip-planning experiment and provided ratings of site attributes. Site ratings revealed that it was important that travelers accessed information about conditions along their intended route with minimal searching. Map scale and resolution were important graphical elements. The most relevant weather information elements identified by users were precipitation type, road surface condition, visibility, and air temperature.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alexiadis

, Carter

, DeBlasio

, Inman

, Perez

, St-Onge

, and Van Aerde

. Metropolitan Model Deployment Initiative—National Evaluation Strategy. Report FHWA-JPO-99-041. Intelligent Transportation System Joint Program Office, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1998, pp. 50–56.

Mahoney

The Prototype Winter Road Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS): Project Status and Preliminary Results. (CD-ROM) Proc., ITS America 13th Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, Minn., May 2003.

Boon

C. B.

, and Cluett

. Road Weather Information Systems: Enabling Proactive Maintenance Practices in Washington State. Report WA-RD 529.1. Washington State Department of Transportation, Olympia, 2002.

Developing Traveler Information Systems Using the National ITS Architecture. Report FHWA-JPO-98-031. Intelligent Transportation System Joint Program Office, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1998.

Jensen

, Cluett

, Wunderlich

, DeBlasio

, and Sanchez

. Metropolitan Model Deployment Initiative—Seattle Evaluation Final Report. Report FHWA OP-00-020. Intelligent Transportation System Joint Program Office, U.S. Department of Transportation, 2000.

McGovern

, and Norton

. Content Critical. Pearson Education Limited, London, 2002.

Nielsen

Usability Testing. In Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics, 2nd ed. ( Salvendy

Gavriel

, ed.), John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1997.

Reaux

R. A.

, and Carroll

J. M.

. Human Factors in Information Access of Distributed Systems. In Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics, 2nd ed., ( Salvendy

Gavriel

, ed.), John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1997.

Deployment Assistance Report 6: Weather and Environmental Content on 511 Services. 511 Deployment Coalition, June 2003.

10.

Fayish

Assessment of Statewide Web-Based Traveler Information Systems. M.S. thesis. Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 2003.

11.

Pennsylvania RWIS Website. 208.9.196.31/site/site.nsf/MainPage?OpenFrameSet. Accessed Feb. 2002 to March 2003.

12.

Maryland RWIS Website. www.chart.state.md.us/. Accessed Feb. 2002 to March 2003.

13.

Ohio OTIS Website. www.odotonline.org/otis/. Accessed Feb. 2002 to March 2003.

14.

Lappin

A Tale of Two Cities. Presented at ITS America 13th Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, Minn., May 2003.

15.

Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorological Services and Supporting Research. Weather Information for Surface Transportation: National Needs Assessment Report. Report FCM-R18-2002. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Dec. 2002.