Road Roughness Home Page

The general public perception of a good road is one that provides a smooth ride. Consequently, a major focus of state highway agencies in management of their highway networks has been to determine the ride quality of the pavement deriving from roughness characteristics.

Since the late 1970's, Mike Sayers, Tom Gillespie, Steve Karamihas, and other researchers at UMTRI have investigated various methods for measuring and interpreting road roughness. This page provides links to UMTRI resources that should be of interest to engineers, researchers, and managers involved in the measurement and interpretation of road roughness, particularly those using profiler instruments.

For the exchange of information between end users, data collectors, vendors, construction and design engineers and researchers who have an interest in road profiles, road roughness, and pavement smoothness, please vist the Road Profiler User Group (RPUG).