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ITS/Operations Resource Guide 2008

  Table of Contents
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  Featured Resources
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  ITS Initiatives
  Clarus
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ITS Initiatives

Clarus

 
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Clarus Points-of-Contact

 

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Clarus Website

 The Clarus (Latin for "clear") Initiative aims to deploy an integrated road weather observational network and data management system that is national in scope. The initiative will build upon the road weather information systems (RWIS) that many state departments of transportation have been deploying for years, primarily in support of winter maintenance activities. This website presents the goals, background, approach, milestones, and points-of-contact for the initiative.

Cost: Free
To Access This Resource: Access the website address http://www.its.dot.gov/clarus/index.htm.


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Clarus Initiative Website

 This site is a compilation of resources related to the Clarus Initiative. The website contains a Clarus flier, frequently asked questions (with answers), briefings presented at past meetings of the Clarus Initiative Coordinating Committee (ICC), the Clarus Concept of Operations, project design documents, the status of state agency contributions to Clarus, information on the Clarus regional demonstrations, contacts, and related links. The website also links to the Clarus System software tool, which is currently available to the transportation community on an experimental basis.

Cost: Free
To Access This Resource: Access the website address
http://www.clarusinitiative.org
.


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Clarus System

 The Clarus System is a software tool currently available for use by the transportation community on an experimental basis. The Clarus System compiles and distributes weather observations from environmental sensor stations (ESSs) in 11 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. Users can search the system's total population of ESSs by contributing agency or by geospatial coordinates (latitude and longitude). Data may be downloaded in several formats compatible with many common database management software systems. Users may choose to receive weather observations at 20-minute intervals from selected ESSs on a subscription basis. (The Clarus System generates a subscription-specific link on the http://www.clarus-system.com website.) This prototype software has been made available to the transportation community for the purposes of demonstration, evaluation, and refinement of future versions of the software.

Cost: Free
To Access This Resource: Access the website address
http://www.clarus-system.com
.


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Clarus: A Clear Solution for Road Weather Information (2007)

 This flier describes the Clarus system as the 21st century's answer to the need for timely, high-quality road weather information. The flier describes Clarus' benefits for transportation managers, weather information providers, and the traveling public. The flier also includes perspectives of state department of transportation personnel who will benefit from the system's ability to standardize road weather data across multiple jurisdictions and multiple regions.

Cost: Free
To Access This Resource: To order a hardcopy, contact Paul Pisano, FHWA Office of Transportation Operations, (202) 366-1301, Paul.Pisano@dot.gov. For the online version, access the website address http://www.clarusinitiative.org/documents/Clarus_TRB_2007flyer_rev.pdf.


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Weather Applications and Products Enabled through Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII): Feasibility and Concept Development Study (FHWA-HOP-07-084) (2007)

 Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) involves two-way wireless transmission of data from vehicles to other vehicles and from vehicles to the roadside. If implemented nationwide, VII has the potential to make enormous amounts of data available to many different types of ITS applications, including road weather applications. This report assesses the feasibility of using VII-enabled data to enhance road weather products and services. The report inventories what weather data elements are already available on board most vehicles, such as temperature, humidity, precipitation and light level. The report provides an analysis of existing road weather products and services that could be enhanced by vehicle-based weather data, as well as entirely new products and services that these data could make possible. The report presents the results of a case study from Detroit, Michigan that evaluated the accuracy of on-board data elements as compared with data from conventional weather monitoring equipment. The report concludes with recommendations for future research.

Cost: Free
To Access This Resource: Access the following website addresses:


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Clarus Concept of Operations (FHWA-JPO-05-072) (2005)

 This provides a high-level definition of how the Clarus system works. The document identifies the needs of stakeholders, who have various requirements for the types of content, timeliness, level of detail, extent of value-added processing, and reliability of surface transportation weather data. The document also outlines how the Clarus system can be structured to meet these needs. The document concludes with several scenarios showing how various stakeholders will be served by the system.

Cost: Free
To Access This Resource: Access the following website addresses: