VEHICLE OPERATING COSTS UNDER INDIAN ROAD AND TRAFFIC CONDITIONS

A research project on road-user costs sponsored jointly by the Government of India and the World Bank has recently been completed in India. As part of this project, an attempt was made to build relationships between vehicle operating-cost components and road, traffic, vehicle, and environmental factors. India presents a wide variety of these conditions. Roads in India are improved in stages in view of the paucity of funds. A major portion of the roads are single-lane, bidirectional, and unpaved. Traffic is heterogeneous in character; it consists of fast-moving as well as animal-drawn vehicles. Climate and topography change across the country. The work was carried out by collecting real-life data on cost of operation of about 1000 vehicles of different types. The results prove that horizontal curvature, vertical profile, pavement roughness, and pavement width are some of the important factors influencing vehicle operating costs. These results are likely to be of great value in evaluating benefits that are possible from highway improvements and in arriving at sound investment decisions. Since the conditions in India are typical of developing countries, the results can be of value to other developing countries. (Author)

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1983/898/898-013.pdf
• Record URL:
  https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=VEHICLE+OPERATING+COSTS+UNDER+INDIAN+ROAD+AND+TRAFFIC+CONDITIONS&author=C.+SWAMINATHAN&author=L.+KADIYALI&publication_year=1983
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• Supplemental Notes:
  • Publication of this paper sponsored by Committee on Low-Volume Roads. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

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• Authors:
  • SWAMINATHAN, C G
  • KADIYALI, L R
• Conference:
  • Third International Conference on Low-Volume Roads
  • Location: Tempe Arizona, United States
  • Date: 1983-7-24 to 1983-7-28
• Publication Date: 1983

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 80-88
• Monograph Title: LOW-VOLUME ROADS: THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, 1983
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 898
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Classification; Curvature; Developing countries; Environment; Highways; Motor vehicles; Operating costs; Roughness; Vehicle characteristics; Vehicle mix
• Uncontrolled Terms: Highway classification; Horizontal curvature
• Geographic Terms: India
• Old TRIS Terms: Vertical highway profile
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Society; I10: Economics and Administration;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00376530
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309035112
• Report/Paper Numbers: N908
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Aug 30 1983 12:00AM