Study on Assessment Model of Road Snow Removal Capacity

Inclement weather can greatly affect travel conditions and incident rates. For example, snow covered roads are highly prone to traffic incidents and heavy congestion. One of the key tasks for road and traffic managers is to be equipped with sufficient snow removal capacity so as to be able to rapidly clear snow off of roads during storms in order to mitigate the associated dangers. To date there are no quantitative methods or models to assess urban snow removal capacity or to determine the needs of each city. Instead management decisions are largely based on experience, intuition and comparisons. To fill this research void, this paper presents a novel snow removal assessment model developed using archived historical data gathered during snow storms and other inclement weather events. This new model includes three sub-models, namely a road snow accumulation model, a prediction model and an assessment model for snow removal capacity. This paper first presents an analysis of eight major factors affecting snow conditions and snow removal capacity, followed by a presentation of the model calibration. The next section presents the specific steps of the snow removal capacity assessment process and ends with recommendations for road and traffic managers. The results stemming from this paper can be used as an effective decision making tool for transportation managers in assessing snow removal capacity, and developing management, incident and emergency evacuation plans for applicable transportation systems.