Classifying second-level road network of Thailand

Abstract

It has been reported that the road network in Thailand is sufficiently provided with coverage around the country at the length of 470,049 km, implying that there is less need for constructing a new road. However, road management is still fragmented under the jurisdiction of separate local government bodies, especially second-level road network that connects through the local settlements. This has resulted in poor road conditions for the users. One way to improve the management is to arrange the road ownership to appropriate administrations. The legislation on the third decentralization plan which is under drafting has proposed to classify the road network according to administrative jurisdiction. However, the plan lacks the consideration of the road network connections to strategically important places. The solution to such a problem is to classify the road network into different road hierarchies according to the function of uses. This study applied a novel road classification method, Link & Place, which consider the importance of the road based on the levels of vehicular movement (i.e., Link) and levels of activity alongside the road (i.e., Place). Link and Place levels are proposed to be classified into five levels: national, regional, provincial, district and subdistrict. It has been applied for the classification of the existing road network within four provinces in the Northeastern region: Nakhon Ratchasima, Chaiyaphum, Surin and Buriram and assessed for the applicability by interviewing government officials in the affected local areas. The result found that the road that is classified under Provincial Level is appropriate to be the second-level road network of Thailand.