Information on the running costs of cars and trucks may be readily applied to the economic analysis of highway improvements by highway planners, economists, traffic engineers, and design engineers. Reliable running costs based on field tests of motor vehicles are presented as broken down into the cost categories of fuel, oil, tire wear, maintenance, depreciation, and accident costs. Relationships between the cost categories and highway grades operating speeds, roadway surface, horizontal alignment, and traffic volumes are provided to facilitate the calculation of automobile and truck fuel and tire costs for free-flowing volumes. Included are detailed examples illustrating typical problems that can be solved by use of the information presented. Annotated bibliographies are included on the subjects of motor-vehicle operating costs and on relationships between highway accident costs and highway design. /author/.
Abstract