SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA HIGH-OCCUPANCY VEHICLE (HOV) LANE MASTER PLAN

DKS Associates worked with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to produce an update of the HOV Lane Master Plan for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. This paper reports on that process and the results from the effort. The master plan update effort included studying and making recommendations that address four elements that have not been the focus of previous master planning efforts in the Bay Area. HOV lane enforcement was one key element. The project team worked closely with MTC, Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol to identify the most effective strategies for reducing lane-use violations with the least impact on freeway and expressway operations, drawing heavily on national experience. In a second element, the project team looked closely at the gaps in the already extensive HOV lane system. Special attention was given to analysis of the freeway-to-freeway connections for HOV lanes. A third significant element of the master plan update was the analysis of the region's express bus network and its relationship to the HOV lane system. Explicit consideration was given to how the express bus system could be most effectively expanded and how the HOV lane system could be improved to support to the express bus services. A final element of the master plan update was re-examination of how the future improvements to the HOV system will improve air quality. The project included simulation of one HOV corridor to address this final issue.