The History of User Satisfaction Evaluation in Pavement Maintenance

Abstract

The human-centered design approach is well implemented in the areas of product, computer system, and service design, but not in the infrastructure of the national lands. The author came across a maintenance decisionmaking index called the Present Serviceability Index (PSI), established in the 1960s by the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) for road pavement. This article starts with brief technical and operational guidance on road structure and its maintenance, then, introduces the survey and analysis conducted as part of the AASHO Road Test followed by the history of those indexes in Japan, as well as the latest discussion by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) revising the index. The author discusses the PSI’s value as it was introduced more than twenty years prior to the concept of human-centered design approach. However, in Japan’s case, users’ needs have been considered crucial in decision making and standards, it was and is not explicitly implemented in comprehending the standards where HCD design community find room to contribute.