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National Road Pricing Conference

HOV-to-HOT Lanes Workshop
Workshop Presentation

Slide 1

HOV-to-HOT Lanes Workshop

National Road Pricing Conference
June 4, 2010

Mark Burris, Texas Transportation Institute
Jessie Yung, Federal Highway Administration

Photos. Collection of photos having to do with HOT lanes. For visual interest.

Slide 2

Workshop Purpose

Provide hands-on practice in applying lessons learned and best practices from implemented projects across the country

  • understand the challenges in implementing pricing projects
  • move pricing forward in your area

Slide 3

Workshop Agenda

  • Review of Project
  • Break into groups for exercises
  • Five subject areas covered
    • 5-10 minute overview of subject area
    • 20-25 minutes to complete exercise
    • Break for lunch after second round of exercises
  • Group reports

Slide 4

Subject Areas

  • Planning
  • Operations
  • Design
  • Funding and Finance
  • Outreach

No specific order, all have overlapping elements

Slide 5

Our Project

  • Radial freeway corridor serving major activity center

  • 15 miles total length

  • 3 GP lanes in each direction

  • 1 HOV lane in each direction

  • Transit service with two park-and-ride facilities

  • Downtown rapidly developing and congestion growing

  • No funding for expansion. Congested 4-lane adjacent radial freeway is funded for expansion

  • Parallel arterial

Graphic. Visual diagram of the HOV-to-HOT Lanes project - cropped.

Slide 6

Graphic. The diagram shows a 15-mile radial freeway with 8-lanes (2 High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes) and an Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) of 165,000. The Freeway connects downtown employment on the lower left corner and a suburban community in the upper right corner. This community has a population of 20,000; a medium income of $75,000; 20 percent minority, and 1.9 automobiles per household. The freeway peak travel time on the general purpose lane from this suburban community to downtown is 20-30 minutes, the HOV peak travel time is 13-16 minutes. There are two park and ride locations along the freeway with transit service. The one located next to the suburban community in the upper right corner has a transit peak travel time of 25-30 minutes. The other park and ride lot is located next to a suburban community north of the freeway 8-miles from downtown. The freeway peak travel time on the general purpose lane from this suburban community to downtown is 12-16 minutes, the HOV peak travel time is 7-10 minutes. This suburban community has a population of 40,000; a medium income of $40,000, 40 percent minority, and 1.3 automobiles per household. There is a competing arterial connecting the suburban community and the downtown employment center below the radial freeway. The arterial is 20 mile in length with peak travel time of 25-45 minutes. There is a competing radial freeway straight north of the downtown employment. This competing freeway is very congested and is currently 4-lanes to be expanded to 6-lanes in the future. For the overall diagram there is a total travelshed population of 200,000; a $50,000 median income; 30 percent minorities, and 1.5 autos per household.

Slide 7

Project Characteristics

  • Corridor History
    • Congestion worsening
    • Downtown businesses seeking alternatives to bring more commuters downtown
    • Opposition to capacity improvements on adjacent radial corridor from environmental interests
  • Corridor demographics
    • Varies by sub-area
    • Total travelshed population = 200,000
    • $50,000 median income
    • 30% minorities
    • 1.5 autos per household

Slide 8

Project Characteristics

General Purpose Lanes

  • 6 lanes with full shoulders
  • 165,000 AADT and growing
Bar Graph. Bar graph showing Traffic Volume by time-of-day. Peak hours include 6:00-9:00 am and 4:00-7:00 pm with the maxium number of vehicles per hour occurring between 7:00 and 8:00 am and 5:00 and 6:00 pm. Vehicles per hour doesn't begin to fall to its lowest level until 7:00 pm and steadily decreases until 2:00 am. The hours between the two peaks stay around 8,000 to 10,000 vehicles per hour.

Slide 9

Project Characteristics

  • HOV Project History
    • Operating for 9 years
    • Construction funding came from state and federal sources
    • Full-time HOV2+ operation (24/7)
    • Peak period average vehicle occupancy of 2.21
    • Public perception of underutilization, 1000 vph in peak
    • Park-and-ride utilization at 65% , 2 lots

Slide 10

HOV lanes

  • 2 lanes, one in each direction
  • Buffer separated
  • Peak volumes 800-1000 vehicles per hour
  • Peak period speed 65 mph
Graph. Graph showing Travel Time Savings Offered by HOV Lane. Speed and travel time savings versus time of day. Inbound times: 5:00-10:30. Outbound times: 14:00-19:30. HOV lane speed, GPL speed and travel time savings marked on the graph.

Slide 11

Project Characteristics

Project Partners
  • State DOT
    • Owner of lanes and ROW
    • Operator of freeway
  • Transit authority
    • Operator of express bus service and park-and-ride facilities
  • Regional toll authority
    • Operates one toll road in region
      • Cash and transponder-based electronic tolling
  • State police
    • HOV enforcement
  • Metropolitan Planning Organization

Slide 12

Project Characteristics

  • Legal authority
    • HOT allowed by state statute
  • Regional policies
    • Conversion of HOV lane to HOT lane in long range plan
    • No policies on toll rate setting, occupancy, etc.
  • Environmental clearance – FONSI expected

Slide 13

Project Characteristics

  • Cross section
    Graphic. Cross section of the 6-lane roadway with HOV lanes. Six lanes with 10' shoulders. There is an HOV lane in each direction. A 4' buffer between the general purpose lanes and the HOV lanes. The HOV lanes then each have a 10' shoulder.
  • Access
    • In addition to termini, two intermediate access points to HOV lane
      • Between the two P&R lots
      • Between P&R lot and downtown
  • Enforcement
    • Enforcement areas (14' shoulder) located on downstream ends of intermediate access points

Slide 14

Project Characteristics

  • Estimated project costs
    • Capital costs: $10,000,000
    • Annual operating costs $1,000,000
  • Available funding
    • State is committed to contributing $8,000,000
  • FHWA/FTA program requirements and limitations – FTA funds used in construction of HOV lanes
  • Traffic and revenue studies – none

Slide 15

Planning

  • Establish goals and objectives and clearly communicate a vision
  • Take advantage of opportunities
  • Maintain flexibility
  • Engage project partners and encourage agency cooperation

Slide 16

Planning Exercise

Screen Capture. Screen capture image from the workshop exercises file, planning section.

Slide 17

Operations

  • Develop a Concept of Operations to guide the process
  • Determine vehicle occupancy based on current operating conditions
  • Pricing strategy
  • Tolling policy
  • Enforcement
  • Hours of operation
  • Operating parameters/goals

Slide 18

Operations Exercise

Screen Capture. Screen capture image from the workshop exercises file, operations section.

Slide 19

Design

  • Depends on design of HOV lanes and available room in the corridor to make modifications
  • Separation mechanism
  • Access locations
  • Toll collection locations
  • Coherent signing program
  • Wider buffer when using pylons or paint
  • Safe merging/weaving distances
  • Incident detection and use of ITS
  • Number of lanes

Slide 20

Design Exercise

Screen Capture. Screen capture image from the workshop exercises file, design section.

Slide 21

Funding and Finance

  • Ownership for facility and right-of-way
  • Available assistance through federal programs
  • Stakeholders
  • Revenue sharing

Slide 22

Finance Exercise

Screen Capture. Screen capture image from the workshop exercises file, finance section.

Slide 23

Outreach

  • Identify project champions
  • Conduct market research and identify issues
  • Develop clear and concise messages
  • Communicate project goals
  • Outreach to travelers about changes in access or other conditions
  • Continue from project development through operations
  • Create brand awareness

Slide 24

Outreach Exercise

Screen Capture. Screen capture image from the workshop exercises file, outreach section.

Slide 25

Breakout Group Reports

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