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Vehicle Operating, Accident and User Time Costs in Pavement

Management Systems: Approach for Portuguese Conditions

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Aug. 2011, Volume 5, No. 8 (Serial No. 45), pp. 723-731
Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture, ISSN 1934-7359, USA
D DAVID PUBLISHING

Vehicle Operating, Accident and User Time Costs in

Pavement Management Systems: Approach for
Portuguese Conditions

Bertha Maria Batista dos Santos1, Luís Guilherme de Picado Santos2 and Victor Manuel Pissarra Cavaleiro1
1. Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Beira Interior, Covilha 6200-001, Portugal
2. Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, IST, Technical University of Lisbon, Lisbon 1049-001, Portugal

Abstract: This paper presents a description and analysis of the most important models to predict each of the Road User Costs
components (Vehicle Operating Costs, Accident Costs and Value of Time) and proposes a model for estimating RUC components
suitable for the Portuguese road network. These results are part of a research which aimed to obtain a Road User Cost Model to be used
as a tool in road management systems. This model is different from other models by the fact that it includes a simple formulation that
allows calibration and calculation of cost parameters, for any year, in a simple and fast way, providing trustworthy results. The required
data is already available in Portuguese institutions, allowing periodic revision of cost parameters to insure accuracy.

Key words: Costs, pavement management systems, time, traffic accidents, vehicle operations.

considered a good example of an application and

1. Introduction 
calibration of an existing model.
1.1 Review of the Most Important RUC Models The COst Benefit Analysis (COBA) [4] is used in
the evaluation of Trunk Road schemes in England,
Several models are available for estimating Road
Wales and Northern Ireland and presents a simple
User Costs (RUC). Brief descriptions of the ones
RUC formulation. Nevertheless, it has a very careful
studied for conceptual basis of a Portuguese model are
definition of the constants and selected parameters to
presented below.
achieve adaptation to local characteristics, especially
The World Bank HDM-RUE–“Modeling Road
in the appraisal of fuel, accidents and value of time
User and Environmental Effects in HDM-4” [1, 2],
costs.
considered as a reference, is a model that allows the
In the USA, The Manual “Techniques for Manually
calculation of the most important RUC components
Estimating Road User Costs Associated with
and, because it can be adapted to local conditions, it´s
Construction Projects” (TxDOT) [5, 6] is used in
the most applied all over the world, the most tested
Texas Transportation Institute and uses look-up costs
and validated. Also the New Zealand Vehicle
tables that provide RUC values in terms of value of
Operating Cost Model (NZVOC) [3] was considered
time (VOT) according to project type. A “before
being basically an application of VOC HDM-4 model
versus after” approach is used for added capacity
(with default values) calibrated with local information
projects, and a “during construction versus after”
for adaptation to New Zealand conditions. It is
approach for rehabilitation projects. The VOT is the

only component considered according to the principle
Corresponding author: Bertha Maria Batista dos Santos,
PhD, assistant professor, research fields: Road user costs, that significant variations of operating speed will lead
pavement life cycle cost analysis, asset management, territorial to a decrease in travel time and therefore a decrease of
planning. E-mail: bsantos@ubi.pt.
724 Vehicle Operating, Accident and User Time Costs in Pavement Management Systems: Approach for
Portuguese Conditions
VOT, while vehicle operating costs (VOC) and
accident costs (AC) remain almost the same.
Finally, the Cost Model integrated in the former
Pavement Management System (early 1990s) of the
Portuguese Road Administration (JAE RUC) [7]
(designated, at the time, by JAE–Junta Autónoma de
Estradas) relies on the simple relations between the
condition of the pavements (longitudinal roughness)
and road user costs components. This model was
based on the Norway Pavement Management System.
The study revealed that most of these models
consider three main RUC costs components: VOC, AC
and VOT. In RUC assessment VOC is the most studied
component, with a very significant role, and usually
includes fuel, engine oil, tyres, maintenance and
depreciation costs. The AC component generally
reflects fatal, non-fatal and property damage only
accidents costs; and the VOT component is often
considered as an hourly wage rate function.
1.2 Vehicle Operating Costs
Fuel consumption cost is frequently the most
significant component of VOC (20% to 40%) and the
one with the most research work. Recently fuel
consumption has been modelled using mechanistic
principles that relate consumption to the motion
opposing forces.
On the other hand, the engine oil consumption cost
represents a very small contribution to the total VOC,
therefore, it has not been studied in detail as the other
components.
As far as tyres are concerned, and although the tyre
consumption costs can represent a significant
contribution in the total VOC, especially in heavy
trucks, it has received less attention because of the
large number and hard modelling of factors related to
tyre consumption (tread wear and carcass wear). The
modelling results have lead to unsatisfactory
parameters in the use of mechanistic models, generally
developed in controlled experiments that relate tyre
consumption to fundamental equations of motion.
Empirical models were and can also be developed,
usually using fleet survey data.
Vehicle maintenance and repair costs are usually
comprised of part consumption and labour hours cost.
Benefits from roads improvements can be quantified
with this component however few researches have
been conducted because of problems in performing
empirical measures and predictions. The existing
relations are usually based on published data and data
surveys. Major differences in labour costs and
improvements in vehicle technology justify the
importance of model calibration.
Finally, the vehicle depreciation costs depend
basically on the use of the vehicle, service life time
and technical obsolescence. It is usually modeled as a
function of replacement vehicle price, using
techniques like value-age, capital recovery and
optimal life.
1.3 Accident Costs
The AC assessment is complex (especially accident
predictions) but the increasing cost of road accidents
justifies the consideration of possible accident savings,
especially in low-medium design standard roads, as
well as VOC reductions and time saving in economic
appraisals.
Due to the inability to predict accidents based on
road design characteristics, as acknowledged by
several published data, methodologies like the ones
adopted by COBA and HDM-4 developed flexile and
simple look-up tables to obtain accident predictions.
In these tables accident rates are obtained according to
road category and urban/rural location.
Most of the models allow separate estimation of
number of accidents taking place in intersections,
sections and total (intersection and section), and
consider three types of accidents: fatality, injury and
damage only.
1.4 Time Costs
The VOT, related with time savings, is an important
variable for economic analysis varying according to
 Vehicle Operating, Accident and User Time Costs in Pavement Management Systems: Approach for
Portuguese Conditions
road improvement scenarios which result in
significant changes in operating vehicle speed.
VOT evaluation is normally made by attributing a
monetary value to user time in travel, usually as a
function of an average wage. Most of the existing
models distinguish between two main purposes of
travel: travel in the course of work activities and travel
for non-work purposes.
2. Methodology Applied for Portuguese
Conditions
2.1 Road User Costs Approach
The model for Portuguese conditions was
developed taking into account several main aspects,
specifically: the recognized conceptual principles,
application to trunk roads, the impact of each
component on the total users’ costs and the
availability of Portuguese official information,
moreover, four vehicle classes were considered,
passenger car (PC), utility (U), heavy truck (HT) and
heavy bus (HB).
725
(with a low impact in total RUC but specially
significant for heavy vehicles that have an important
role in the Portuguese case because most of the
national and international transportation of goods is
made by road through trucks).
Consideration of AC and VOT are justified by the
reasons already presented above. The inclusion of AC
is also justified because it has not been used in
previous Portuguese RUC despite the importance of
benefits quantification related with road
improvements.
The model still considers the users willing to pay
for improved roads by the addition of tolling costs to
VOC, AC and VOT.
The cost basis used is only related to direct costs for
the user.
2.2 Portuguese RUC Model Formulation
The model developed for Portuguese conditions has
the following formulation [8, 9]:
RUC VOC  AC  VOT  Toll (1)
4
The results of these considerations lead to a VOC AADT u ¦ VOCi u pi  (2)
i 1
Portuguese model with the three main costs
VOC i Cf i  Ct i  Cm i  Cd i (3)
components identified above: the vehicle operating
costs, the accident costs and the value of time. Cf i cf i u Cmfi (4)
The RUC formulation was based on the nt i u Cmt i
Ct i ; (5)
simplification of HDM-4 equations for VOC; in tsl i
COBA and HDM-4 approach for AC; and, in JAE Cmmti
Cm i (6)
Cost Model and HDM-4 principles for VOT. vsli u kma i
Existing vehicles were considered as representative Cmdt i
Cd i (7)
of the selected four classes according to national vsli u kma i
official sales numbers. This assumption simplified
§ 3 3 ·
VOC evaluation and future model calibration. AC AADT u ¨¨ ¦ AC j  ¦ CC k ¸¸ (8)
The VOC components considered in this model ©j1 k 1 ¹
were: fuel (because of the high impact in total RUC), AC j AR j u ac j (9)
3
maintenance and repairs (which has a medium impact,
CC k ANC k u cc k u ¦ AR j (10)
influences other components as fuel consumption, j 1
vehicle depreciation, AC and VOT, and reflects the EA 365 u AADT u l (11)
benefits of roads improvements), vehicle depreciation ANA j
(with medium impact, reflects capital invested in
AR j (12)
EA
vehicle acquisition versus car optimal life) and tyres
726 Vehicle Operating, Accident and User Time Costs in Pavement Management Systems: Approach for
Portuguese Conditions

NC k ACj is the accident j cost in €/km/vehicle; CCk is the

ANC k (13)
ANA casualty k cost in €/km/vehicle; EA is the annual
4
exposure to accidents in sections and intersections
VOT AADT u ¦ ( VOTi u pi ) (14)
i 1
(total) in vehicles×km/year; l is the section length in
2 km; ARj is the accident j rate in accidents/vehicle/km;
u ¦ TC m u OR i ,m 
1
VOTi (15) ANAj is the annual number of accidents j in
si m 1
accidents/year; ANCk is the average number of
TC m 1 NAW (16)
casualties k by accident in casualties/accident; NCk is
TC m 2 0.25 u NAW (17)
the number of casualties k in casualties/year; ANA is
4
Toll AADT u ¦ ctolli u pi  (18)
i 1
Where for Eq. (1):
RUC is the road user cost in €/km/day; VOC is the
vehicle operating cost in €/km/day; AC is the accident
cost in €/km/day; VOT is the value of time in
€/km/day; and, Toll is the toll cost in €/km/day.
Where for Eqs. (2)-(7):
i corresponds to vehicle class (i = 1 for PC, i = 2 for
U, i = 3 for HT and i = 4 for HB); AADT is the annual
average daily traffic in vehicles/day; VOCi is the
vehicle operating cost for vehicle i in €/km; Cfi is the
fuel cost for vehicle i in €/km; Cti is the tyre cost for
vehicle i in €/km; Cmi is the maintenance cost for
vehicle i in €/km; Cdi is the vehicle depreciation cost
for vehicle i in €/km; pi is the vehicle proportion of
each class i for the AADT considered; cfi is the fuel
consumption for vehicle i in L/km; Cmfi is the fuel
market price (gasoline or diesel) in €/L; nti is the
number of tyres for vehicle i; Cmti is the tyre market
price for vehicle i in €/tyre; tsli is the tyre service life
for vehicle i in km; Cmmti is the total maintenance
market price for vehicle i in €; vsli is the vehicle i
service life in years; kmai is the annual average
kilometreage for vehicle i in km/year; Cmdti is the
total vehicle i depreciation market price (less tyres) in
€.
Where for Eqs. (8)-(13):
j corresponds to accident class (j = 1 for accidents
with slight injury; j = 2 for accidents with serious
injury; j = 3 for accidents with fatalities); k
corresponds to the casualty class (k = 1 for slight
injury; k = 2 for serious injury, k = 3 for fatalities);
the annual number of accidents with casualties in
accidents/year; acj is the accident j cost (police and
medical accident assistance cost) in €/accident; cck is
the casualty k cost in €/casualty.
Where for Eqs. (14)-(17):
VOTi is the value of time for vehicle i in
€/km/vehicle; si is the average operating speed for
vehicle i in km/h; m corresponds to travel purpose (m
= 1 for travel in work time and m = 2 for travel in
non-work time); TCm is the time cost for travel
purpose m in €/h/occupant; ORi,m is the occupancy
rate for vehicle i and travel purpose m in
occupant/vehicle; NAW is the national average wage
in €/h/person.
And, where for Eq. (18):
ctolli is the toll cost for vehicle i in €/km/vehicle.
2.3 Application of the Model for Passenger Car
Vehicles and Heavy Trucks
Some preliminary values resulting from the
application of the presented model for passenger car
and heavy trucks are provided in Tables 1-5.
2.4 Model Comparison
Figs. 1-4 provide some information related with the
unit cost values (€/km) resulting from the application
of the proposed model (PTRUC) as well as from the
models study, for the passenger car and heavy trucks
vehicles [10]. The contribution of fuel and non-fuel
components in the total vehicle operating cost (VOC)
and the contribution of the VOC and the value of time
(VOT) in the total RUC are presented.
 Vehicle Operating, Accident and User Time Costs in Pavement Management Systems: Approach for 727
Portuguese Conditions

The accident costs (AC) are not presented in this or even different regions of the same country may be
comparison because they usually comprise the diverse. However, the formulation proposed is flexible,
characteristic costs and information from the network like most of the existing ones, allowing the calculation
or section in analysis so values for different countries of this cost for the conditions prevailing in each case.

Table 1 Passenger car vehicle information (base year: 2006).

Representative vehicle RENAULT CLIO III 1.2 16V Dynamique Luxe 5P
Vehicle service life (years) 10
Annual average utilization (km/yr) 20000
Vehicle distribution by gasoline/diesel (%) 50/50
Fuel consumption – gasoline/diesel (L/100km) 5.9/4.8
Nº of tyres and price (€/tyre) 4 – 70€
Tyre service life (km) 40000
Depreciation distribution by time/distance (%) 60/40
Vehicle occupancy (occupants) 1 work driver and 1 not-work passenger; Total = 2
Value of time (€/hour/occupant) 6.00€/h (work time)

Table 2 Passenger car cost values in €/km (base year: 2006).

VOC VOT Toll
Maintenance EN/ER IC IP AE
Fuel Tyres Depreciation ctoll
and Repairs 70 km/h 80 km/h 90 km/h 120 km/h
0.065 0.007 0.008 0.083 0.107 0.094 0.083 0.063 0.070
Note: EN/ER – Portuguese National and Regional Roads with two lanes (one in each direction) and “medium” design standards; IP
and IC – Portuguese Main roads (Principal and Complementary roads) with two lanes (one in each direction) and “high” design
standards; AE – Portuguese Freeways with at least 4 lanes (two in each direction), median and “high” design standards.

Table 3 Heavy truck vehicle information (base year: 2006).

Representative vehicle DAFT FT 95 430 S 380 with semi-trailer
Vehicle service life (years) 12
Annual average utilization (km/yr) 85000
Vehicle distribution by gasoline/diesel (%) 0/100
Fuel consumption – gasoline/diesel (L/100km) 44.0
Nº of tyres and average price (€/tyre) 12-455€
Tyre service life (km) 200000
Depreciation distribution by time/distance (%) 80/20
Vehicle occupancy (occupants) 1 work driver; Total = 1
Value of time (€/hour/occupant) 9.06€/h (work time)

Table 4 Heavy truck cost values in €/km (base year: 2006).

VOC VOT Toll
Maintenance EN/ER IC IP AE
Fuel Tyres Depreciation ctoll
and Repairs 50km/h 60km/h 80km/h 100km/h
0.466 0.027 0.027 0.080 0.181 0.151 0.113 0.091 0.180
Note: EN/ER – Portuguese National and Regional Roads with two lanes (one in each direction) and “medium” design standards; IP
and IC – Portuguese Main roads (Principal and Complementary roads) with two lanes (one in each direction) and “high” design
standards; AE – Portuguese Freeways with at least 4 lanes (two in each direction), median and “high” design standards.
728 Vehicle Operating, Accident and User Time Costs in Pavement Management Systems: Approach for
Portuguese Conditions

Table 5 Accident cost (base year: 2006).

Accident/Casualty type Light injuries Serious injuries Fatalities
Police assistance (€/accident) 53.40 148.80 232.80
Medical assistance (€/accident) 16.80 96.40 96.40
Casualty cost (€/casualty) 40000 90000 500000

Fig. 1 Fuel and non-fuel components distribution in the vehicle operating costs (VOC) for passenger car vehicles.

Fig. 2 Fuel and non-fuel components distribution in the vehicle operation costs (VOC) for heavy trucks.

Although there are some differences in the cost
values and in the representative vehicles used for each
model and country, the vehicle operation costs values
are easier to compare even with the different scenarios
considered for each model.
Regarding time cost values and charts; they must be
carefully read. Establishing a value of time is probably
the RUC component that is most difficult to quantify in
an economic appraisal. Regional or national average
wage values are usually used for a time cost definition.
However, these values can differ significantly from
country to country or even from region to region.
Analyzing Fig. 1 it is possible to conclude that the
fuel and non-fuel components contributions in the
 Vehicle Operating, Accident and User Time Costs in Pavement Management Systems: Approach for 729
Portuguese Conditions

vehicle operating costs (VOC) for the passenger car
(PC) obtained from PTRUC are similar to the average
values and especially to the ones obtained from the
application of the HDM-4 to Portuguese data and the
NZVOC values. However, for heavy trucks (HT) (Fig.
2) some significant differences can be observed. These
differences are essentially caused by the low values
found for depreciation, and especially, by the high
values obtained for maintenance when the HDM-4
model was applied to the available Portuguese data,
resulting in a bigger non-fuel contribution.
Low depreciation values were obtained for heavy
trucks in HDM-4 given that the calculations of the
annual average utilization (km/year) for private use 
50% depend on the average number of the vehicle
working hours (hours/year), being the values
recommended by the model greater than the typical
Portuguese ones. Multiplying the average number of
working hours by the vehicle’s average speed results
in a higher value of annual average utilization.
Therefore, when the total vehicle depreciation cost is
divided by the utilization, the result will be a lower
value of depreciation per kilometer. For a more
accurate calculation, a model calibration with values
consistent with the Portuguese reality, which can be
obtained by the use of official Portuguese data related
to the annual utilization (km) instead of the default
HDM-4 average annual utilization, must be
considered.
The perceptible differences in the maintenance
values are the results of the considerations of the
various models in this cost definition. The HDM-4

Fig. 3 The vehicle operation costs (VOC) and value of time (VOT) distribution in the RUC for passenger car vehicles.

Fig. 4 The vehicle operation costs (VOC) and value of time (VOT) distribution in the RUC for heavy trucks.
730 Vehicle Operating, Accident and User Time Costs in Pavement Management Systems: Approach for
Portuguese Conditions
allows us to perform calculations of the components
and labor costs for total maintenance operations while
the PTRUC model considers only the preventive
maintenance costs. However, another reason for the
high maintenance values obtained may be pointed out,
which is related to the higher HDM-4 values for the
number of maintenance labor hours when compared to
the typical Portuguese values. This is also a
consequence of the consideration of preventive
maintenance costs in PTRUC model, which are only
part of the total cost of maintenance, resulting in lower
values of labor hours.
Despite the differences (especially for heavy trucks),
which can be reduced with the model calibration in a
more accurate Portuguese HDM-4 application, the
results reflect the vehicle operation costs formulation
for Portuguese conditions based on the HDM-4 VOC
equations.
The contributions of the VOT and VOC in the total
Portuguese RUC presented in Fig. 3 for the passenger
cars differs from the values obtained in the existing
models under consideration with the exception of the
JAE values, reflecting a consistency among models
developed for Portuguese conditions. The values of
the different contributions are the result of the
difficulties in quantifying this cost, as mentioned
above.
For heavy trucks the values obtained are similar, as
can be observed in Fig. 4.
The values shown for NZVOC model and the
TxDOT manual in Figs. 3 and 4 only include one cost
component in determining the road user costs (VOC
and VOT, respectively). For this reason, the average
values calculated and shown in the “Average Mod”
column do not include the contribution of the NZVOC
model and the TxDOT manual values.
3. Conclusions
The reduced amount of data, the availability of this
information, a simple and flexible formulation, an
easy calibration and application to yield reliable
results, are the main improvements of the proposed
model over the existing ones, like the World Bank
(HDM-4) model. It is possible to use HDM-4 in a
Portuguese reality, as shown above, but would require
careful calibration and a great number of data types
that in most cases are not available.
A first approach to RUC model formulation for the
Portuguese conditions that allows to compute average
users’ costs is presented in this paper however the
final model formulation is not already defined. The
consideration of the pavement condition and work
zones will allow the necessary adjustments and
refining of the proposed model.
From the observation of the results obtained from
the reference models and that proposed it is possible
to confirm the main role of the vehicle operating costs
(VOC) in total RUC. However, the value of time
(VOT) obtained also present a significant contribution
(approximately 20%).
Thus, knowing that the vehicle operation costs is
the most significant RUC component and is mostly
influenced by pavement conditions, a decrease in
RUC is expected when a careful pavement
maintenance program is applied, at the same time
reducing the number of accidents and improving
travel time. Additionally the decrease of the operation
speed due to the implementation of the maintenance
actions (work zones) increases significantly the value
of time (VOT) and the fuel consumption (in
congestion situations). Therefore the occurrence of
maintenance actions should also be taken into account.
Due to the flexibility of the model, changes of the
pavement condition and the consequences of work
zones can easily be included in the RUC formulation
by considering specific parameters defined for a
particular scenario and pavement quality index, such
as operating speed or fuel consumption. Research
about the mentioned parameters and adjustments to
the proposed model will be developed in the near
future.
 Vehicle Operating, Accident and User Time Costs in Pavement Management Systems: Approach for 731
Portuguese Conditions

The final model will provide (because at the present construction projects, Texas Transportation Institute, USA,
1999.
moment no RUC model is being used in Portugal) the
[6] G. Daniels, W. R. Stockton and R. Hundley, Estimating
needed tool to apply RUC in the economic analysis of road user costs associated with highway construction
the Portuguese Pavement Management Systems. projects: simplified method, In Transportation Research
Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No.
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