Boosting performance of road infrastructure

The rapid growth of satelite city in South Tangerang will directly impact road infrastructure and environmental conditions. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate level of satisfaction and important of existing road infrastructure in satelite city. The study was to gain the perception of road users and other stakeholders regarding various elements of satelite city self-reliance in maintaining the quality of road infrastructure. Using one of satelite city in South Tangerang as a case, the specific research objectives are to: ascertain road user level of satisfaction with the road infrastructure and determine the most dominant factors affecting road user satisfaction. A questionnaire survey was conducted on road users in three selected roads at satelite city. Through a random sampling, a total of 384 responses were collected. After the survey, interviews were conducted with subject matter experts to understand the current practices and possible solutions to the problems. Data processing using SPSS software version 20.00 and analysed using Cronbach Alpha (α) statistical method and Importance Performance Matrix Analysis (IPMA) to know the level of satisfaction and important of user. The priority matrix analysis result shown that the safety improvement and comfort facilities for pedestrians, disabled provider and cyclists become important elements. The ranking of the importance elements in road performance based on user perceptions obtained the highest average value of 22 % which shows that the road safety element is the most important element in road performance.

Municipals and local authorities all over the world are attempting to boost the number of children walking or cycling to school as the benefits for children and society as a whole deriving from an active travel to and from school are widely acknowledged. For this reason programs that encourage active travel to school are often implemented by local authorities or schools. Many of these programs focus on the child. Cycle training or motivation programs aimed at a mode shift towards active travel are relatively easy to set up and can lead to quick results. Yet, a child centred review of the road infrastructure is necessary to sustain these modal shifts, as the road safety concerns of children and parents remain a major barrier to children’s independent travel to school. The needs of youth and children are often neglected in road and traffic design. This fact can be traced to a number of factors. The number of children using an active travel mode to school can be very low to start with, while the road network that the children commute on can be extensive. Only little data is available on children’s independent commuting patterns or their use of road infrastructure. These factors can lead to ad hoc decision making or to inactivity in implementing necessary road works. If only a fraction of a child’s route to school is perceived to be unsafe, if has a great potential to prevent children from walking or cycling to school. Children’s perception of dangerous road infrastructure is a major barrier to children’s independent travel to school. This study asked children to trace the routes that they take to and from school on a provided paper map. The children were than encouraged to mark areas and places on the map of where they felt or unsafe in traffic, using a set of predefined symbols. The resulting routes and symbols have been digitalised and analysed using the Geographic Information System ArcView. Of the 172 surveys distributed to 6 th year students of St. Fiachras Primary School in Beaumont Dublin a 36 % response rate was recorded. From the resulting 62 routes, 22 are categorized as walking routes, 18 were cycling routes and 16 routes are those of car passengers. Defined differences in the distribution of positive and negative markers along these routes were recorded, whereby the location of negative markers pinpointed a distinct problem area in the road network. Surprisingly, on a site visit this area was served quite well with pedestrian / cycling infrastructure. The results of this study indicate that children’s maps are a valuable analytical tool that can help road engineers to pinpoint problem areas in a road network in relation to specific road users. The methodology employed is cost effective and a fast method to survey small sample groups which can be used to analyse relatively large areas of road network and could be applied on a national scale.

One of the consequences of the increased utilization of road infrastructure is more frequent maintenance work. Since generally road works result in less available road capacity, we can witness an increase in traffic hindrance, which involves delays and externalities as noise, air quality, safety and the emission of GHG. Hindrance is generally not restricted to the location where the maintenance works take place, but can occur in a wider area as a result of altered flow patterns in the whole network. The type of reconstruction, and the way the work is executed determines not only the cost and service life but also the amount of hindrance. We present a multi-objective framework where for a longer period of time, cost and hindrance of specific road maintenance works can be determined, as part of a decision support tool for the optimal planning of maintenance works. For this we developed an alternative traffic assignment method that is able to predict traffic flow in a network in the presence of road works.

Urban road maintenance is an important part of urban traffic management. However, in modern cities, road maintenance work needs to occupy some traffic resources; therefore, unreasonable road maintenance schemes often lead traffic networks to unexpected large-scale congestion. In this paper, a dynamic programming model is proposed in order to minimize the delay caused by road maintenance scheme. This model can obtain a globally optimal maintenance scheme which contains the decisions and sequence for every stage of maintenance. Each stage of this model can be boiled down to a discrete network design problem. This model helps make suggestions for the traffic managers with the request of minimizing the delay caused by the maintenance scheme. This paper uses two examples to illustrate this method, one is a small-scale Nguyen-Dupuis network, and the other one is a larger scale Sioux-Falls network.

Road infrastructure development, maintenance, and management are vital for the movement of goods and people between places. Therefore, without road infrastructure, mobility is compromised, which can lead to the country's slow economic growth. Road defects such as potholes, malfunctioning traffic lights, unsecured manholes, and missing road signs start to emerge when maintenance is lacking. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the maintenance performance of a local road agency. The number of potholes and missing or damaged manhole covers, Kerb Inlet (KI), traffic signs, traffic lights, and guardrails are the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) used to measure maintenance performance. KPIs are compared against Service Level Agreement (SLA) targets set by Company X and best practices in road maintenance where data is available. The impact of lack of maintenance is determined by the number of incidents caused by road defects and the amount of money paid by Company X on liability costs. The study determines that road maintenance by Company X does not meet the SLA for all KPIs. From 2020 and January to June 2021 the maintenance performance of Company X against the SLA was at its lowest in the past five years. Company X paid liabilities costs of more than R3 500 000 in 2020.

Public transportation has a strategic role in improving the mobility of urban communities, including Bekasi City, which faces congestion challenges due to the growth of private vehicles that are not balanced with road infrastructure. The BISKITA Trans Bekasi Patriot service comes as a solution to reduce congestion and provide efficient public transportation. This study aims to analyze passenger satisfaction with the service, identify factors that affect satisfaction, and provide recommendations for improving service quality. The research method used is descriptive quantitative with a survey approach, using the SERVQUAL (Service Quality) technique to measure the gap between expectations and reality of services, as well as the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) to assess the overall level of satisfaction. Data was obtained through questionnaires distributed to 100 respondents with a purposive sampling technique. The results showed passenger satisfaction was in the “Satisfied” category, with a CSI value of 80.71%. The dimension with the most significant gap is Tangible (-3.78), especially in the indicators of bus stop seating comfort and bus stop cleanliness. In contrast, the reliability dimension has the smallest gap, which shows that the performance is closest to passenger expectations. The conclusion of this study confirms that although the service is quite adequate, improvements are still needed in bus stop facilities, especially cleanliness and comfort, as well as improving the quality of service of officers through training that focuses on friendliness and responsiveness. By implementing these recommendations, it is hoped that the BISKITA Trans Bekasi Patriot service can continue to increase passenger satisfaction and support the efficiency of community mobility in Bekasi City.

This study assesses the effects of Rural Road Infrastructure on the distribution of Agricultural products in Akure South Local Government area with a view to providing solutions to the problems caused by inadequate provisions of road infrastructure and its negative impact on agricultural product distributions in the study area. The study evaluated the opinion of the farmers, traders, drivers who are the users of rural roads as well as the government officials in charge of rural road maintenance and construction. Furthermore primary data were employed in eliciting information from the respondent through the questionnaires and systematic random sampling techniques were employed in gathering relevant data and information within the study area. The result of the analysis revealed a significant relationship at 0.05 between the quality of the road infrastructure and the transportation of agricultural product in the study area at p-0.02 and r-0.186. The study concluded that the roads in the study area as well as those connecting the farms with markets are bad and recommended that these roads should be widened and bituminized as well as the provisions of other road infrastructure and the member of the community should participate in rural roads construction and maintenance.

Carbon footprint comparison of innovative techniques in the construction and maintenance of road infrastructure in The Netherlands

Tourism industry has become a key economic driver for Singapore. Understanding the behaviors of tourists is very important for the government and private sectors, e.g., restaurants, hotels and advertising companies, to improve their existing services or create new business opportunities. In this joint work with Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA), we innovatively apply machine learning techniques to identity the tourists among public commuters using the public transportation data provided by LTA. On successful identification, the travelling patterns of tourists are then revealed and thus allow further analyses to be carried out such as on their favorite destinations, region of stay, etc. Technically, we model the tourists identification as a classification problem, and design an iterative learning algorithm to perform inference with limited prior knowledge and labeled data. We show the superiority of our algorithm with performance evaluation and comparison with other state-of-the-art learning algorithms. Further, we build an interactive web-based system for answering queries regarding the moving patterns of the tourists, which can be used by stakeholders to gain insight into tourists' travelling behaviors in Singapore.

DOI: 10.1049/ic:20080016 ISBN: 978-962-442-297-9 Location: Hong Kong, China Conference date: 25-28 March 2008 Format: PDF Singapore Land Transport Authority of Singapore vision is to provide "A World Class Land Transport System". To achieve this objective, implementation of an effective safety management within the organisation is one of the major elements in fulfilling this pledge. This paper focused on this safety organisation's efforts for rapid transit system (RTS) and detailed their functional roles in safety management. The intention of this paper is to share our organisation's experience on the commitments of safety for RTS in Singapore. Inspec keywords: railway safety; rapid transit systems Subjects: Plant engineering, maintenance and safety; Transportation

Estimating carbon emissions from road use, maintenance and rehabilitation through a hybrid life cycle assessment approach – A case study

Rapid innovation is an important tool to maintain leadership in a volatile environment. VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world examples have shown how challengers within an organization must be developed and encouraged to create disruptive services and products that can replace existing ones. In road transport sector, customer satisfaction has been recognized as the most powerful competitive weapon that many leading service organizations possess .While this is so many public transport companies have not addressed the factors that affect customer satisfaction in the VUCA public transport sector.The study objectives were to determine how road infrastructure and matatu crew character affect customer satisfaction in the ever changing public road transport sector in Kenya with reference to Nairobi County. The study employed a descriptive research design. A sample size of 148 respondents were selected out of the target population of 344 that included the County Transport Department Staff, the Traffic Officers and the Matatu Owners Association and Matatu Crew that operate at various city stations and dropping and picking points. Data was collected through a semi-structured questionnaire. Descriptive analysis were used to analyze the collected data and were presented through charts, frequency tables and graphs. Conclusions and recommendations were drawn from the findings.The findings of the study showed that road infrastructure and matatu crew character all affected customer satisfaction in road transport sector in Kenya.The study recommended that there is need for improved road connectivity across the city especially in areas that are under serviced and connectivity is poor; and that it is necessary to enhance existing disciplinary procedures for offenders as this is appropriate in achieving high levels of customer satisfaction. Also, there is need to improve personal conduct of the sector players as some Matatu Crew behave in a manner that does not appeal to customers and that where the SACOOs do not have an existing code of conduct for matatu crew, there is need to develop one in order to provide guidelines on the matatu crew conduct. The study recommended further research on effect of training on matatu crew conduct in the Public Transport in Kenya.

Drainage is one of the most important factors to be considered in the road design, construction and maintenance projects. It is generally accepted that road structures work well and last longer to give the desired service. When a road fails, whether it is concrete, asphalt or gravel, inadequate drainage is often a major factor to be considered. Researchers have shown that poor drainage is often the main cause of road damages and problems with long term road serviceability. Though provision of proper road surface drainage systems have such a great importance for the urban road to give the intended use and thereby contribute to the overall development of a nation, in particular in road sector, the practice of the construction of proper integrated drainage structures did not get due attention in our country in general and Jimma town in particular for many years. Therefore the problems and achievements on the design, construction and maintenance of surface road drainage systems need to be assessed to provide remedial measures for the better performance of the road infrastructure. The objective of this study was to assess road surface water drainage problems and its net-work integration systems in Ginjo Guduru Kebele of Jimma town. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Ginjo Guduru Kebele of Jimma town from January to August 2014.The data collected was then be analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively, and the result of the study thus presented in tables and in themes. From the study made, generally it was observed that the road surface drainage found to be inadequate due insufficient road profile, insufficient drainage structures provision, improper maintenance and lack of proper interconnections between the road and drainage infrastructures thereby resulting damages to road surface material and flooding in the area.

In the past, when assessing the stability of roadside slopes in mountainous areas of Taiwan, road maintenance and inspection personnel were often limited by steep terrain and vegetation cover. They could only observe damages on the road surface and sides instead of grasping the key points of landslides and disasters. Among them, Sandimen and Wutai located on Highway 24 in Pingtung repeatedly suffer from natural disasters, such as falling rocks, debris avalanche or subsidence of roadbed, after the strike of Typhoon Morakot whenever a typhoon, torrential rain or earthquake event occurs. The government therefore spent a lot of money on road maintenance works. In this area, we have combined topographic features identified from LiDAR-derived 1-m resolution DEM and large-scale ground surface deformation observed using the multitemporal InSAR technique (MT-InSAR) developed based on ALOS-2 / PALSAR-2 images collected between 2015 and 2022. Then Sections 29.5K and 34.5K are selected as the key study area of this investigation. The cumulative deformation results of these key slopes are: -80 mm at 29.5K from ALOS-2 imagery and -103 mm at 34.5K from ALOS-2. As for the section of 29.5K, from May 8, 2016 to December 4, 2016, the overall slope of the road was affected by several heavy rains and typhoons, among which the maximum rainfall on that day reached 303 mm; and the amount of deformation decreased by 16.7 mm; the average deformation of subarea block A decreased by 33.6 mm, and the average deformation of subarea block B decreased by 14.8 mm. As for the section of 34.5K, the overall roadside slopes were affected by several heavy rains and typhoons, among which the maximum accumulation of rainfall on that day reached 303 mm, from May 8, 2016 to December 4, 2016. The amount of deformation decreased by 13.7 mm. Our primary results demonstrate that the cumulative deformation and rainfall of these two key slopes show a positive correlation.

PurposeLCA is increasingly used in infrastructure policy and planning. This study maps approaches used in comparative LCA of road and rail infrastructure to (1) determine the length of the analysis period, (2) estimate the maintenance frequency, and (3) include the effects of climate change on infrastructure performance. A LCA may need to fulfil different requirements in different decision-contexts. The relevance of the approaches for decision-making in policy and procurement is therefore discussed.MethodsNinety-two comparative LCAs of road and rail infrastructure published in peer-reviewed journals January 2016–July 2020 were reviewed. Papers were found through a systematic process of searching electronic databases, applying inclusion criteria, and conducting backward and forward snowballing.Results and discussionThe analysis period was commonly determined based on infrastructure service life. The maintenance frequency was estimated based on current practice, laboratory tests, modelling, or scenarios. The effects of climate change were considered in two papers by comparing results in a control case and in a changed climate. In policy and procurement, current practice approaches are not adapted to innovative solutions or to climate change. Modelling and laboratory tests could improve calculations of the maintenance phase but might have some limitations related to innovative solutions. Scenarios could be readily applied in a policy context; however, in procurement, consistent and generic scenarios should be used.ConclusionsResults suggest what approaches could be used to account for maintenance in infrastructure LCA depending on the decision-context. The LCA community is suggested to research other approaches than current practice to account for long analysis periods, climate change, and innovative solutions. Additionally, literature not covered here could be reviewed for additional approaches and perspectives. Examples include stand-alone LCAs, method development papers, papers on the individual approaches and decision-contexts, certification systems, standards, and guidelines.