Are Part-Time HOV Lanes Working Full Time: Evidence from Northern California Freeways

Over half of the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes in the US operate on a part-time basis. Outside of active hours, they are supposed to revert back to general purpose. The authors are interested in whether this aspect of operations is working as intended. This study looks at the traffic flow during peak and non-peak time for weekdays and weekends in freeways in Northern California. A comparison of freeways with and without HOV lanes shows that an inactive HOV lane has nearly 60% less flow than the adjacent general purpose lanes or a typical left lane on average. Plots from individual sites show a pattern of underutilization that persists across inactive weekday hours, all weekend hours, and a wide range of traffic states. The evidence suggests that inactive HOV lanes are not being treated as another general purpose lane. This underutilization can be attributed to the lack of appropriate information available to drivers about operating times of HOV lanes and to the general driving behavior that forms around them. Suggestions to improve the utilization of HOV lanes at all times of the day are made so that the intent of part-time operation can be realized.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHB35 Standing Committee on Managed Lanes.
• Authors:
  • Anderson, Paul
  • Bhattacharyya, Abhinav
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References;
• Pagination: 3p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Freeway management systems; Freeways; General purpose lanes; High occupancy vehicle lanes; Lane occupancy; Off peak periods; Peak periods; Public information programs; Traffic flow; Traffic signs; Utilization
• Geographic Terms: Northern California
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01663996
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-06467
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 22 2018 12:04PM