CommuniSense: Crowdsourcing Road Hazards in Nairobi

Nairobi is one of the fastest growing metropolitan cities and a major business and technology powerhouse in Africa. However, Nairobi currently lacks monitoring technologies to obtain reliable data on traffic and road infrastructure conditions. In this paper, we investigate the use of mobile crowdsourcing as means to gather and document Nairobi's road quality information. We first present the key findings of a city-wide road quality survey about the perception of existing road quality conditions in Nairobi. Based on the survey's findings, we then developed a mobile crowdsourcing application, called CommuniSense, to collect road quality data. The application serves as a tool for users to locate, describe, and photograph road hazards. We tested our application through a two-week field study amongst 30 participants to document various forms of road hazards from different areas in Nairobi. To verify the authenticity of user-contributed reports from our field study, we proposed to use online crowdsourcing using Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to verify whether submitted reports indeed depict road hazards. We found 92% of user-submitted reports to match the MTurkers judgements. While our prototype was designed and tested on a specific city, our methodology is applicable to other developing cities.Comment: In Proceedings of 17th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI 2015

EVALUATION PAVEMENT DISTRESSES USING PAVEMENT CONDITION INDEX

Pavement deterioration is resulted by both environmental and structural causes. It is difficult to maintain the road on the same specification that was owned at the opening and problems start to appear represented in the pavement cracks, holes and undulations and so on. Recognizing defects and understanding their causes helps us rate pavement condition and select cost-effective repairs. Periodic inspection is necessary to provide current and useful evaluation data. It is recommended that ratings be updated every year. Maintenance is an essential practice in providing for the long-term performance and the esthetic appearance of an asphalt pavement. The purpose of pavement maintenance is to correct deficiencies caused by distresses and to protect the pavement from further damage. A condition rating of the pavement will help determine what pavement maintenance technique is necessary. A methodology was proposed to investigate the pavement condition; this study focuses on flexible pavement. A manual survey is performed following ASTM D 6433. The pavement is divided into sections. Each section is divided into sample units. The type and severity of sample distress is assessed by visual inspection of the pavement sample units and the quantity of each distress is measured. Typically, this procedure requires a team of at least two engineers. The pavement evaluation results from the manual PCI survey revealed that all sections of road were fair condition. Considered the section of road that surveyed, describing the condition pavement of the all road. The pavement that has been studied at Koums area would seem to require maintenance. Thick overlay (sometimes called surface treating) is needed in a comprehensive pavement

Public Perceptions of the Midwest’s Pavements - Wisconsin - Phase I (Focus Group)

This research is being conducted as part of a larger study of the public\u27s perceptions of state-maintained rural highway pavements in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. Later stages of this project will involve interview;ing residents of the three states by telephone to gather information about people\u27s concerns about the pavements in general and specific stretches of highways in particular. Information from this effort is expected to aid the states\u27 Departments of Transportation refine the standards used to set pavement reconstruction priorities to better meet the needs of residents

Public Perceptions of the Midwest’s Pavements - Minnesota - Phase III (Targeted Survey Report)

This research is being conducted as part of a larger study of the public’s perceptions of state-maintained rural highway pavements in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. Later stages of this project will involve interviewing residents of the three states by telephone to gather information about people’s concerns about the pavements in general and specific stretches of highways in particular. Information from this effort is expected to aid the states’ Departments of Transportation refine the standards used to set pavement reconstruction priorities to better meet the needs of residents

A specified procedure for distress identification and assessment for urban road surfaces based on PCI

In this paper, a simplified procedure for the assessment of pavement structural integrity and the level of service for urban road surfaces is presented. A sample of 109 Asphalt Concrete (AC) urban pavements of an Italian road network was considered to validate the methodology. As part of this research, the most recurrent defects, those never encountered and those not defined with respect to the list collected in the ASTM D6433 have been determined by statistical analysis. The goal of this research is the improvement of the ASTM D6433 Distress Identification Catalogue to be adapted to urban road surfaces. The presented methodology includes the implementation of a Visual Basic for Application (VBA) language-based program for the computerization of Pavement Condition Index (PCI) calculation with interpolation by the parametric cubic spline of all of the density/deduct value curves of ASTM D6433 distress types. Also, two new distress definitions (for manholes and for tree roots) and new density/deduct curve values were proposed to achieve a new distress identification manual for urban road pavements. To validate the presented methodology, for the 109 urban pavements considered, the PCI was calculated using the new distress catalogue and using the ASTM D6433 implemented on PAVER TM. The results of the linear regression between them and their statistical parameters are presented in this paper. The comparison of the results shows that the proposed method is suitable for the identification and assessment of observed distress in urban pavement surfaces at the PCI-based scale

Public Perceptions of the Midwest’s Pavements - Minnesota - Phase I (focus group)

This research is being conducted as part of a larger study of the public’s perceptions of state-maintained rural highway pavements in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. Later stages of this project will involve interviewing residents of the three states by telephone to gather information about people’s concerns about the pavements in general and specific stretches of highways in particular. Information from this effort is expected to aid the states’ Departments of Transportation refine the standards used to set pavement reconstruction priorities to better meet the needs of residents

Evaluating the Need to Seal Thermal Cracks in Alaska’s Asphalt Concrete Pavements

INE/AUTC 12.2

Develop Guidelines for Pavement Preservation Treatments and for Building a Pavement Preservation Program Platform for Alaska

INE/AUTC 12.0