FAIR LANES: A NEW APPROACH TO MANAGE CONGESTED FREEWAY LANES

Value pricing has successfully been used to manage freeway congestion in the U.S. in conjunction with new traffic lanes, and on existing toll facilities and high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) converted to High-Occupancy/Toll (HOT) lanes. However, strategies which involve converting free to toll are extremely difficult for the public to accept. The objections could be overcome using an innovative concept called and Intertwined Regular lanes or FAIR lanes. This concept involves separating congested freeway into two sections: Fast and Regular lanes. The Fast would be electronically tolled express lanes, where tolls are set in real time to limit traffic to the free-flowing maximum. The Regular would continue to be free with constructed flow as at present, but drivers would be compensated with credits for giving up their right to free use of the Fast lanes. This paper analyzes the travel impacts, financial feasibility and economic efficiency of the concept, and discusses public acceptability issues.