Montana Tech Professor Encourages Use of Weather Tracking Application

As holiday travel approaches, Montana Technological University Assistant Professor Douglas Galarus wants to remind the community to visit the One-Stop-Shop for Rural Traveler Information (OSS) web application which provides travelers in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado with comprehensive, real-time data that can be employed in planning their trip. The web application disseminates road and weather information for travelers across the entire western U.S.

The One-Stop-Shop was originally developed by Galarus’ former team at the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University and has been funded by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Western States Rural Transportation Consortium. In 2014, the project won an international award from the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. The project is now in a maintenance phase at Montana Tech, and Galarus has incorporated it into his classroom work and undergraduate research assistants assist with the maintenance of OSS.

Galarus, who teaches in the Computer Science department, added, “As holiday travel approaches and weather changes are imminent, I encourage travelers in Montana and across the entire western United States to use the One-Stop-Shop to get seamless updates on current and forecast road-weather conditions. The site has received over 60,000 user sessions over the past week with the recent significant snow events and has served up over 2 million roadside camera images to users from all 50 states and over 40 countries.”

The One-Stop-Shop consists of roadside camera images, sign messages, incidents, current and forecast weather, and more. OSS is mobile-friendly and works on phones, tablets, and desktop computers.

To access OSS, go to https://oss.weathershare.org/.