Citation

Harrison R, Swait JD. Transp. Res. Rec. 1980; 747: 97-105.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1980, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences USA, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Data derived from a large-scale user-cost survey currently being conducted in Brazil are presented and analyzed. Equations for six vehicle classes that are used to predict rates of vehicle use (defined as kilometers traveled per month) as a function of highway characteristics are presented. The highway characteristics studied are surface roughness and three measures of vertical geometry. These data were collected by two specially instrumented vehicles that measured a network of 597 routes totaling 38,000 km. Vehicle-use data representing 1220 vehicles were used as the main analysis set; the set comprised 265 cars, 57 utility vehicles, 655 buses, and 243 trucks. A further 261 heavy vehicles were used to derive predictions for this class after the main analysis had been conducted. Equations derived from the analyses were tested against a further set of 145 vehicles. Reference to previous studies is made, and an example that shows the derivation of differential depreciation costs per kilometer is included. Preliminary results on the effect of vehicle age are given, and details of further work are specified.