ESTABLISHING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PAVEMENT ROUGHNESS AND PERCEPTIONS OF ACCEPTABILITY (WITH DISCUSSION AND CLOSURE)

A psychological scaling experiment was conducted in Wisconsin to establish relationships between pavement roughness and users' perceived need to improve the road. A total of 32 road segments were selected for user evaluation. Except for their surface, they had very similar characteristics (speed limit, length, terrain, traffic volumes, scenery, etc.). Physical roughness was measured with both a response-type instrument (roadmeter) and a profilometer. Fifty paid subjects were selected randomly from the general population. They were asked to rate ride quality on both the traditional Weaver/AASHO categorical scale and on a newly designed magnitude estimation scale. In addition, subjects were asked, using a Likert scale, about their willingness to resurface and were asked to estimate the amount of extra time they would be willing to spend to avoid a particular segment, considering its roughness. The experiment yielded several useful mathematical relations between physical roughness and users' willingness to resurface. It was found that the magnitude estimation scale was preferable to the Weaver/AASHO scale for measuring subjective roughness. Surprisingly, the roadmeter was better than the profilometer for measuring physical roughness.

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1988/1196/1196-027.pdf
• Record URL:
  https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=ESTABLISHING+RELATIONSHIPS+BETWEEN+PAVEMENT+ROUGHNESS+AND+PERCEPTIONS+OF+ACCEPTABILITY+(WITH+DISCUSSION+AND+CLOSURE)&author=A.+Garg&author=A.+Horowitz&author=F.+Ross&publication_year=1988
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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper appears in Transportation Research Record No. 1196, Pavement Evaluation and Rehabilitation. 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
• Authors:
  • Garg, Arun
  • Horowitz, Alan
  • Ross, Fred
• Discussers:
  • Janoff, Michael S
• Publication Date: 1988

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 276-285
• Monograph Title: Pavement evaluation and rehabilitation
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 1196
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Acceptance; Consumers; Decision making; Mathematical analysis; Profilometers; Psychological aspects; Resurfacing; Ride quality; Road meters; Roughness
• Uncontrolled Terms: Acceptability; Subjective analysis; Users
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Pavements; I22: Design of Pavements, Railways and Guideways; I23: Properties of Road Surfaces;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00490167
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309047714
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Dec 31 1989 12:00AM