An Energy Frame of Reference to Assess Vehicle’s Physical Externalities

Abstract Externalities of the road transportation are multidimensional in nature and involve the road-vehicle interaction under different environmental conditions. Estimating the pavement and vehicle damage potentials as a function of the conditions under which such interaction takes place, is important to avoid accelerated or catastrophic damages in these systems. Such an assessing is crucial from the perspective of pricing the effects of the vehicle on the infrastructure and vice versa. The existing models for pricing such interaction, critically depends on gross average statistical models. In this paper, it is proposed a deterministic approach to realize such an assessment, based upon validated approaches for the pavement damage. The simulation scheme considers different degrees-of-freedom vehicle models, and a discrete asphalt pavement, that make possible the simulation of massive traffic situations on realistic road lengths.