Evaluation of Truck Lane Restriction on Non-Limited Access Urban Arterials

The strategy of managing truck traffic through truck lane restriction is very prevalent on limited access highways in Florida and other States. The perceived and real success of truck lane restriction on freeways have led to increasing demands from the public for highway agencies to institute similar measures on non-limited access highways. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of various geometric, traffic, and signalization factors that might affect safety and operational effectiveness of truck lane restriction on non-limited access highways, primarily on urban arterial roadways with significant amount of truck traffic. Because of lack of sufficient sites with truck lane restriction on which to conduct a longitudinal field study, VISSIM simulation software was used to evaluate operational and safety effects of truck lane restriction by varying various parameters related to the restriction. The results of various simulation scenarios showed that restricting trucks to the right lane don't have deleterious effects on both safety and operational roadway performance compared to no restriction at all. In fact, it could improve travel speed on the highway corridor, although not much. However, restricting trucks to the left or center lanes would cause excessive lane changing, reduced travel speed, increased queue length, and delay. The imposition of truck lane restriction of either kind increases speed difference between cars and trucks within lanes. This phenomenon is likely to increase vehicular conflicts in real life but the exact extent of its operational and safety implications need to be studied further in the field.