A multilevel decision-making approach for road infrastructure management

The design of effective road safety countermeasures requires a network diagnosis supported by data. Moreover, infrastructures need to be ready for the introduction of vehicle-to-infrastructure communications to support technologies, as truck platooning. Ascendi, a motorway concessionaire, developed an action plan to decrease crash frequency and casualties that rests in data recorded by automatic vehicle counting devices. To have a good network representation, new equipment will provide more data, thus enhancing the selection of countermeasures. We developed a multilevel decision-support approach to define equipment location. The process stages correspond to three levels of analysis: (1) clustering for road segment classification (network level); (2) quantification of the devices to install ensuring similar coverage (concession level); (3) device allocation according to geographical and cost criteria (segment level). An iterative and participatory process involving Ascendi resulted in a proposal for adding 43 devices to the existing 72, increasing the network coverage to 39%.