INNOVATIVE TECHNIQUE FOR HOV TRAVEL DEMAND FORECASTING

The metropolitan Washington, DC area has the dubious distinction of having the second worst congested road system in the United States, and the highest per capita cost. Traffic congestion is an unfortunate byproduct of growth in population and employment, coupled with a dependency on the use of single occupant automobile for associated work and non-work trips and the lack of roadway capacity to meet the peak traffic demands. Traffic congestion results in reductions in mobility and safety, added costs to the movement of goods and services, stress to persons traveling on the system, and increasing air quality and environmental problems. Transportation providers have long realized that the solution to traffic congestion in dense urban areas cannot rely solely on provisions of unbounded highway capacity, but must also incorporate alternative modes (e.g., transit), demand management strategies and optimization of the person-carrying capacity of the existing highway network. The latter objective can be achieved through the use of High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV facilities. The objective of an HOV facility, whether it be a reserved lane on an arterial street or freeway, or HOV lanes in separate rights-of-way, is to provide persons traveling in HOVs a cost-effective travel alternative with predictable travel times that are significantly less than they would experience as a non-HOV user. It is cost effective for the commuter because the total costs per work trip is less than driving alone. The time savings are realized because the HOV users can travel at free-flow speeds for most of the trip length, and with uncongested lanes there is lower probability that there will be an incident that would cause delay along the HOV facility.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Full conference proceedings available on CD-ROM. ISBN 0-935403-48-5.
• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)

  Washington, DC  United States 
• Authors:
  • Smith, M J
  • Shapiro, P S
• Conference:
  • ITE 2000 Annual Meeting and Exhibit
  • Location: Nashville, Tennessee
  • Date: 2000-8-6 to 2000-8-9
• Publication Date: 2000

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 13p
• Serial:
  • Institute of Transportation Engineers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Commuters; Forecasting; High occupancy vehicle lanes; Innovation; Speed; Traffic congestion; Traffic flow; Transit riders; Travel demand
• Geographic Terms: Washington (District of Columbia); Washington Metropolitan Area
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00809249
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 25 2001 12:00AM