PURPOSES: This study aims to develop a rational procedure for estimating the pavement roughness index considering vehicle wandering. METHODS: The location analysis of the passing vehicle in the lane was performed by approximately 1.2 million vehicles for verification of the wandering distribution. According to verification result, the distribution follows the normal distribution pattern. The probability density function was estimated using each lane's wandering distribution model. Then the procedure for applying a weighted value into the lane profile was conducted using this function. RESULTS : The modified index, MRIw, with consideration towards applying the wandering weighted value application was computed then compared with MRI. It was found that the Coefficient of Variation for distribution of lateral roughness index in the lane was high in the case of a large difference between each index (i.e., MRIw and MRI) observed. CONCLUSIONS : This result confirms that the new procedure with consideration of the weight factor can successfully improve the lane representative characteristics of the roughness index.