Geographical Analysis and Identification of Pavement Surface Characteristics Causing Road User Complaints in Terms of Ride Quality

Since approximately 50% of transportation in Japan depends on road vehicles, expressways play an important role in the development of road net-works. However, over hundreds of complaints in a year from road users have been recorded on an expressway call center in terms of the ride quality. Against this background, maintenance strategy of road surfaces enabling safe and comfort travel is required to maintain a high level of service of expressways. This study identifies pavement surface characteristics causing user complaints in both network and project level analyses of expressway pavements with geographical and profile analyses. The results show that the difference in road surface temperature between daytime and nighttime leads to one of the causes for increasing complaints. This study also proposes the Localized Factor (LoF) and the root mean square (RMS) value of road profile height to visualize localized surface deformation. The outcomes of this study contribute to the improvement of road surface management based on the human-centered design concept that allows road users to travel expressways safely and comfortably.