The effect of road roughness on vehicle operating costs for medium-sized trucks: a calibration of existing models

A project report submitted to the faculty of engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering Johannesburg 1991In the economic and social development of any country, an effective road transportation system is an important factor However, it also consumes a large proportion of the total infrastructure costs, while the costs borne by the road user for vehicle operation and depreciation arc even greater. A policy must therefore be adopted in which total community costs for any road link Of network are minimized. To do this meaningfully, alternatives must be developed and compared and the trade-offs between them carefully assessed. This, in turn, requires the ability to quantify the different cost functions for the desired period of analysis. [No abstract provided. Information taken from introduction]MT201