Measuring Pavement Smoothness from the Perspective of E-scooters

As e-scooter rental services have become a popular transportation mode in many cities, pavement quality data are needed for e-scooter paths. The objectives of this research were to develop and demonstrate a device for measuring pavement smoothness along e-scooter paths using commercially available equipment, including an e-scooter and a mobile phone with accelerometer and geolocation features. A method of data processing was developed to produce a pavement smoothness metric from the acceleration measurements. The results of data collection and analysis suggest that the instrumented e-scooter is able to efficiently measure and quantify pavement smoothness for bike lanes and paths, where observed differences in pavement smoothness were clearly correlated with differences in pavement distress. Because e-scooters available through typical shared mobility programs are already equipped with sensors like those utilized in this study, the possibility exists for e-scooter rental services to collect useful pavement quality data from their riders' information and provide it to cities, where the data could inform master plans related to infrastructure improvement.