Rural Traveler Information (One Stop Shop), Phase 1

The objective of this project is to put a variety of real-time information together in a single web-based location in a user-friendly format. This will provide travelers making a trip in or through rural areas access to current travel information on a route-specific basis, customized for a specific origin and destination, enabling drivers to travel more safely and with a minimum of delay.

Real-time traveler information is a valuable tool in protecting and enhancing both traveler safety and mobility, even in rural areas. From a safety perspective, it is important for rural travelers to know before a trip about potential challenges that may impact their trip, including snow, ice, high winds, fires and other hazards. These same challenges may degrade mobility, as may challenges such as vehicle crashes and work zones. While such information may currently be available through a variety of sources, there is inconsistency in the types and quality of information available. In addition, information is generally scattered over numerous web-based (and sometimes non-web-based) sources, meaning travelers must spend significant amounts of time assembling this information before making a trip. As a result of the effort involved with putting this information together, many rural travelers do not seek out all the information they need, if they even choose to at all. This may result in increased delays and potentially degraded safety. The proposed research project will focus on a limited geographic area (e.g. Caltrans District 2) to provide a proof-of-concept of providing route-based traveler information in one location and to evaluate its effectiveness. While this scale of implementation will yield some direct benefits for the selected area, the research team believes that the principal value of this research is in demonstrating the feasibility and attractiveness of a one-stop shop for real-time route-specific traveler information for rural areas. The proof-of-concept will be designed in a scalable fashion, so that the concept may be expanded to other routes and states. Ultimately, as larger geographic areas are covered, this could become an umbrella traveler information web site, which could be used as a primary point of reference for longer distance trips, with travelers interested in shorter trips looking at other web sites for information. This could revolutionize traveler information, improving safety and mobility for all highway system users.