Operational Assessment of Speed Priority for High-Occupancy Vehicle Lanes over General-Purpose Lanes

Current guidelines arguably do not properly address how much high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes should be prioritized over general-purpose (GP) lanes. This study develops two schemes for HOV and GP lanes about “speed equilibrium” which determines the HOV lanes being well-, under- or over-prioritized. The first scheme incorporates average vehicle occupancy into speed priority, reflecting the HOV core value of carrying more persons by fewer vehicles; HOV equilibrium speed appears to be decreasingly higher than GP lane speed as traffic rises from the free flow to jam states. The second scheme is a revision of the existing HOV principle; the equilibrium built upon time savings leads to HOV speed becoming increasingly higher than GP lane speed as traffic goes up. Both schemes are visualized in three dimensions to illustrate the effects of individual traffic variables. Through a single measure of speed, the schemes ensure inferior HOV priority regarding mobility and reliability. Observed freeway data are applied to the schemes, and the results can be used to determine the necessity of HOV policy adjustment. The schemes serve as complements to HOV operational assessment.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHB35 Managed Lanes.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Chung, Chih-Lin
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC
  • Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
• Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 21p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: High occupancy vehicle lanes; Highway operations; Mathematical models; Speed distribution; Travel time; Variable speed limits; Vehicle occupancy
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I71: Traffic Theory; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01518181
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-2696
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 12 2014 9:33AM