Current Practices of Acquiring Public Road Inventory Data in the United States

摘要

Highway inventory data provide a basis for many transportation engineering activities. It isrequired by FHWA for every state DOTs to collect highway inventory data as part of theirHighway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS). Traditionally, windshield surveys are themost popular inventory data collection method for state DOTs. However, the traditional methodis inefficient, time-consuming, and hardly sustainable as gasoline price tripled in the last decade.As the recent advancements of computers, sophisticated sensors, and image processing, newtechnologies have been employed in the practice of inventory data collection. This paper presentsthe results of a survey study on the current practices of public road inventory data collection inthe United States. In the study, relevant literature was reviewed; a comprehensive web basedsurvey questionnaire was developed and distributed to state DOTs all across the country; andfollow up phone interviews were made for missed information and special interests. The surveyshowed that, a majority of state DOTs rely on local officials to acquire local road inventory data.Data submissions to a state DOT from the local agencies are frequently in accordance with statelaw or policies related to highway fund allocation. Many states also utilize more advancedmethods to extract or integrate available data sources.