Floating car road weather information monitoring system

A new method of gathering information employs a motor vehicle that travels along Route E18 in Finland. This mobile monitoring station gathers information about driving conditions and transmits video images of different places along this section of roadway. The information is transferred in real time to the Finnish National Road Administration road weather information system. The mobile road weather-monitoring vehicle was developed to improve the gathering of information on weather and driving conditions on the road network and to provide more accurate data. The monitoring equipment measures the temperature and humidity of the air and the surface temperature as well as friction of the road surface. This information is positioned in the equipment using a satellite-based Global Positioning System. The measurement takes place while the vehicle is driven in normal traffic. The functioning of the measurement system was tested in 1998-1999. The weather parameters measured by the mobile monitoring station correspond to information provided by stationary stations. The accuracy of the friction measurements is sufficient for defining driving conditions, but it is not quite as good as that of special friction-measuring instruments.