Effectiveness of California’s High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) System

The effectiveness of California’s high vehicle occupancy (HOV) system was evaluated using traffic sensor data. Reliable peak hour speed and flow measurement data was collected from loop detectors from 700+ stations for 128 weekdays. It was found that: an HOV lane suffers a 20% capacity loss compared with multi-lane freeways; HOV lanes are either under-utilized or suffer degraded operations; HOV lanes do not measurably increase car-pooling; HOV lanes do not reduce overall congestion in a reasonably well-managed system. Much more is to be gained by operating the existing freeway system more efficiently than by adding HOV lanes. HOV facilities can, however, play an important role in a well-managed overall freeway system in California.

• Record URL:
  http://www.dot.ca.gov/newtech/researchreports/reports/2007/p281-to6301_final_report_prr-2007-05.pdf
• Record URL:
  https://merritt.cdlib.org/d/ark%3A%2F13030%2Fm52n6gjs/1/producer%2F896829781.pdf
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/896829781
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Title on Technical Report Documentation Page: What is the Excess Capacity in High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Lanes?
• Corporate Authors:

  University of California, Berkeley

  California PATH Program, Institute of Transportation Studies
  Richmond Field Station, 1357 South 46th Street
  Richmond, CA  United States  94804-4648

  University of California, Berkeley

  Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
  Berkeley, CA  United States  94720

  California Department of Transportation

  1120 N Street
  Sacramento, CA  United States  95814
• Authors:
  • Varaiya, Pravin
• Publication Date: 2007-5

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 23p
• Serial:
  • PATH Research Report
  • Publisher: University of California, Berkeley
  • ISSN: 1055-1425

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Carpools; Economic efficiency; High occupancy vehicle lanes; Highway capacity; Vehicle detectors
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01555294
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: UC Berkeley Transportation Library
• Report/Paper Numbers: UCB-ITS-PRR-2007-53, CA07-0987
• Contract Numbers: 65A0208
• Files: PATH, CALTRANS, TRIS, ATRI, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Feb 26 2015 10:05AM