DEVELOPING A MANAGED LANES POSITION PAPER FOR A POLICY-MAKER AUDIENCE

The lane concept is currently being considered on major freeway projects in Texas cities. While the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) concept is familiar in most urban areas, motorists are less familiar with lanes. The term managed encompasses a variety of facility types, including HOV lanes, high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes, single-occupancy vehicle (SOV) express lanes, special use lanes, and truck lanes. The premise of the lanes concept is to increase freeway efficiency and provide free flow operations for certain freeway users by packaging various operational and design strategies. The strategies deployed offer the flexibility to be adjusted to match changing corridor and regional goals. This report documents the development of a position paper. The position paper incorporates research findings from task eight of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) research project 0-4160, Operating Freeways with Managed Lanes. The research findings are published in Report 4160-7, Marketing the Managed Lane Concept. The appendix of this report contains a position statement on lanes suitable for use by policy makers considering decisions related to freeway planning. The paper provides policy makers with a statewide perspective on lanes. The paper identifies the benefits of lanes, how the lanes may be operated, where successful projects have been implemented, and what TxDOT has planned for Texas.