ODOT (Ohio department of transportation) is the executive department of the Ohio state which deals with the responsibilities of developing and maintaining state roadways and federal roadways as well excluding the Ohio turnpike. Ohio has divided the state into 12 different districts for the smooth regional development. Each district has the responsibility to design, plan, construction and maintenance of the highways in their region. There are approximately 6000 employees working under this department. The department has completed its 100 years in the year 2005.
When winter begins with the heavy snow squalls in Ohio and it leads to the heavy traffic and accidents. Last winter, ODOT department has warned the motorists about the squalls on I-90 in various places. With the beginning of winters and snow squalls, responsibilities of ODOT get started for the sake of the safety of the state. This makes them use Traffic signs for directing the way to commuters. In order to prevent the crashes or accidents, ODOT has to issue the time to time warnings and updates of the snow squalls. The situation becomes unpredictable and dangerous at the time of snow squalls.
The VMS Signs are an electronic operated device which is used as a traffic sign used on roads in order to inform the drivers about the snowfall on the coming route. These signs warn the drivers about the congestion of traffic, speed limit during the snow squalls, accidents, stuck roads so that as many possible accidents can be prevented. They can be represented manually or automatically and are also known as dynamic message signs.
ODOT is currently operating the 7th largest systems of highways in the United States ad 6th largest interstate system which is measured by the total lane miles. 12 districts are further divided into 4 departments which deal with many sides of the state transportation. The department dedicated a remarkable section of its budget for the construction and maintenance of the bridges in the state.
Falling temperature, heavy snowfall, and strong winds affiliated with snow squalls can lead to hazardous deadly road conditions. Transportation gets extremely disturbed and safety issues are the priority for the ODOT that made them install radar speed signs. Such a step was taken because heavy snow fall and snow squalls are responsible for the number of accidents. Many of the crashes are experienced and traffic gets stuck. There are number of reasons for the accidents in snow squalls which includes problem in visibility, sleepy conditions and sudden white out. These snow squalls lead to collisions of multiple vehicles.
High preventions have been taken for cleaning the roads in order to reduce the chances of high number of accidents. Road closures are the main problem at the time of snow squalls and traffic get stuck in a very dangerous way. Sheriffs and the ODOT works at their level best to rescue this condition. Apart from this, using radar based speed signs is considered appropriate.
An interactive signs at Lake County Ohio are generally constructed of a sequence of LED’s that displays the speed of the vehicle as motorist approach known as the radar speed signs. The main objective of these signs is to aware the drivers that they are exceeding the safe speed limit and this speed of driving at the time of snow squalls can lead to the dangerous accidents and threats to their life. They are displayed on the LED’s and also termed as driver feedback signs.