One thing we can rely on is that roads will ALWAYS need to be repaired! Unlike the magic-based strategy Santa uses to deliver presents to the entire world in just one night – pinning down how often roads need repaired and the best way to plan their maintenance requires a heavy helping of objective data to make it happen.
We hosted a sleighful of folks at our monthly live demos in 2023, and you gave us the gift of insight! We listened and learned a lot about public works’ problems, priorities, and goals across the country and fielded MANY questions about how our automated road assessments could make pavement management more merry.
So which questions were at the top of our list? RoadBotics by Michelin Business Development Manager Glen, who is also a frequent host of our live demo web events, shared some of the most asked – and most interesting – questions for you to consider over the holidays.
The most frequently asked questions are about aspects of our collection process, which is done with just a smartphone:
Do I have to drive both directions on the road to collect visual data on the entire road?
No! Unless your road made it onto the naughty list this year, meaning that a median strip was blocking the view of the other side of the road. In that case, you would need to collect both sides for optimal results.
How many lanes can I collect at one time?
The more lanes the merrier! Thanks to our simple smartphone collection process, you can easily collect roads of up to four lanes wide.
Can I have more than one person driving at the same time?
Yes! Just like cookies over the holidays, there is no limit! You can have as many drivers as you’d like collecting data at the same time. Each person’s data is stored locally to their collection device and uploaded to our secure cloud storage once their internet connection is reestablished.
If you have over 200 miles of road to assess, this is a particularly useful feature! Anyone with a valid driver’s license can contribute to the collection of your road network data.
What happens if I drive over an area you didn’t intend to collect, and what happens when I drive over the same area more than once?
Don’t worry, we check things twice! With our solution, you can rest assured driving over a road accidentally won’t present an issue! During our blueprinting process, we’ll identify each road that should be included in your assessment. Our system disregards areas outside of the confirmed roads. And if you happen to drive over the same area a few times, only one data set will be kept for it.
How many miles can I collect in a day?
About 20 to 30 centerline miles can be collected each day by each person, and 30 to 50 by each reindeer. To speed up the collection process, you can have multiple people collecting at one time. If you don’t “latke” spending a lot of time in the car, you can always adjust to your preferred schedule.
Other popular questions have focused on the delivery of the road assessment results:
Can I designate custom segments that aren’t just from intersection to intersection?
We’re always in the giving spirit and will make your wishlist a reality any time of the year. With our collection technology and blueprinting process, we can help you create specific routes for collection. Once those are determined, our turn by turn directions will guide you through collection as efficiently as possible.
How do I view my data once it is assessed?
Once your data is collected, prepare to deck the halls with data, and fa-la-la-la-all in love with your new, interactive assessment platform, RoadWay! Once you complete collection for every road in your network, your data will be analyzed by our machine learning algorithms. A rating is generated for each 10-foot section of road based on a 1-5 rating scale. Roads rated 1 are in the best condition and appear green like evergreens on our interactive mapping platform, while roads rated 5 are in the worst condition and appear in red like Rudolph’s nose, making each assessment its own little festival of lights! The Virtual Driver feature allows you to cruise down your roads and see their condition. You can even go in reverse without using the rearview mirror!
Did our most frequently asked questions answer your questions? You can still connect with Glen by email, or make plans to attend a Live Demo web event in 2024. Until then, cheers to a happy holiday season!
