Lessons Learned on Managed Lanes: HOV to HOT

This paper reviews the history of how pricing came to be implemented on high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes and the lessons that have been learned. While HOV is one form of managed lane treatment, managed lanes are gaining a much wider appeal as a means of managing traffic congestion and offering travelers more options. Many regional and corridor studies have been undertaken on HOV lanes to consider the benefits and impacts of pricing over the past decade. Up until recently only a half dozen such expansions to add pricing have taken place over the 120 HOV projects found in the U.S. and Canada. While pricing has been slow to be adopted on existing HOV lanes, there are an increasing number of regions with proposals to enhance or expand current high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes and add new projects. Looking forward pricing will likely be a traffic management tool on many if not a majority of new managed lanes being implemented.