A New User-Oriented Index, Based on a Fuzzy Inference System, for Quality Evaluation of Rural Roads

Users of road facilities generally express a judgment on road quality based on their psychophysical conditions, in relation to the environment they refer to. This judgment is made considering many aspects, for example, the presence of traffic lights, the frequency of interchanges, of lay‐bys and gas...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Computer-aided civil and infrastructure engineering 2013-09, Vol.28 (8), p.635-647
Main Authors: Dell'Orco, Mauro, Mellano, Mario
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Fuzzy
Fuzzy logic
Fuzzy set theory
Judgments
Perception
Roads
Rural roads
Uncertainty
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Summary:Users of road facilities generally express a judgment on road quality based on their psychophysical conditions, in relation to the environment they refer to. This judgment is made considering many aspects, for example, the presence of traffic lights, the frequency of interchanges, of lay‐bys and gas stations, route conformation, environmental conditions, quality of road signs, etc. In this article, we propose a new index called Global Satisfaction Index, which uses vehicular traffic quality and quality of road pavement, to summarize these aspects, and to express the users’ global judgment about the ride comfort on rural roads. Since in this kind of judgment a subjective perception process is involved, we have used fuzzy theory to handle uncertainty embedded in the process. The attributes of the aspects considered have been expressed through fuzzy numbers, and the global judgment has been obtained through a fuzzy inference system. In this way the proposed index overcomes the limits of other existing indices, since it incorporates uncertainties and/or imprecision inherent in the drivers’ perception of the ride comfort. Moreover, it can be used for evaluation and comparison of different types of road sections. Finally, a numerical example is presented to assist in understanding the practical aspects of the proposed index.
ISSN:1093-9687
1467-8667
DOI:10.1111/mice.12021