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GAUGING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HIGH-OCCUPANCY VEHICLE LANES: APPLYING THREE CRITERIA TO AVAILABLE DATA REVEALS BENEFITS, VIABILITY
Chris A Wellander, Kathy Leotta
Open publisher page 5 citations
Abstract
The primary goal of high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes is to move more people in limited space. Other benefits (i.e., shifts to higher occupancy vehicles, air quality improvements, and relief of traffic congestion) may or may not occur. Compared with adjacent general-purpose lanes during the most congested periods of the day, an effective HOV lane carries more people per lane, experiences higher speeds, and can be appropriately managed and enforced. HOV projects in North America tally approximately 2,500 lane-miles. This overview describes the performance of a cross section of HOV lanes, assessing a limited amount of available data without collecting new data for analysis.