Simulation-Based Investigation on High-Occupancy Toll Lane Operations for Washington State Route 167
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 135, Issue 10
Abstract
High-occupancy toll (HOT) lane operation has been implemented in several urban areas in the United States and is regarded as one of the most effective management strategies against freeway congestion. By allowing single occupancy vehicles (SOVs) to pay a toll for using high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, the excess capacities of HOV lanes can be used and the overall traffic mobility of the roadway section can be improved. However, research on HOT lane operations is still in its early stage. A series of theoretical and practical issues on optimizing HOT lane system performance particularly require immediate attention for better practice. Simulation-based investigation on HOT lane operations provides a cost-effective, risk-free, and prospective means of exploring and addressing these issues. A microscopic traffic simulation tool, VISSIM, is exploited in this study. By overcoming functional constraints with the VISSIM built-in modules and taking advantage of its component object model interface, we develop a new external module to enable HOT lane simulation. This HOT lane module provides additional flexibility to satisfy any specific demands from particular researchers and practitioners. Based on this external module, HOT lane operations can be simulated and evaluated as demonstrated using the Washington State Route (SR) 167 HOT Lane Pilot Project. The SR-167 simulation results not only quantitatively evaluate the overall system performance but also identify potential problems. Significantly different operational performance was illustrated between HOV lane and HOT lane systems using the developed simulation models. The simulation platform used in this study has the potential to be a cost-effective evaluation tool for HOT lane operations.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers would like to acknowledge Mr. Craig Helmann, Mr. Clyde Scott, Mr. Murshed Delwar, and Mr. Manouchehr Goudarzi, of the Urban Planning Office at Washington State DOT for support of this research. Special thanks to Mr. Jonathhan Corey for his assistance in analyzing test results and completing this project.
References
Appiah, J., and Burris, M. W. (2005). “QuickRide user response to different HOT lane operating scenarios.” Proc., The 84th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board (CD-ROM), Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, Washington, D.C.
Bureau of Transportation Statistics. (2007). National transportation statistics 2007, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington, D.C.
Burris, M. and Sullivan, E. (2006). “Benefit-cost analysis of variable pricing projects: QuickRide HOT lanes.” J. Transp. Eng., 132(3), 183–190.
Chu, L., Nesamani, K. S., and Benouar, H. (2007). “Priority based high occupancy vehicle lanes operation.” Proc., The 86th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board (CD-ROM), Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, Washington, D.C.
Gabriel, G., May, A., and Horowitz, R. (2004). “Congested freeway microsimulation model using VISSIM.” Transp. Res. Rec., 1876, 71–81.
Halvorson, R., Nookala, M., and Buckeye, K. R. (2006). “High occupancy toll lane innovations: I-394 MnPASS.” Proc., The 85th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board (CD-ROM), Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, Washington, D.C.
Kwon, J., and Varaiya, P. (2005). Effectiveness of high occupancy vehicle lanes in San Francisco Bay area, University of California, Berkeley and California State University, East Bay, Calif.
Myron, S., and Ungemah, D. (2006). “So you want to make a hot lane? The project manager’s guide for an HOV-to-HOT lane conversion.” Proc., The 85th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board (CD-ROM), Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, Washington, D.C.
Shrunk, D., and Lomax, T. (2005). The 2005 Urban Mobility Rep., Texas Transportation Institute, The Texas A&M University System, ⟨http://mobility.tamu.edu/⟩ (Jul. 14, 2007).
Small, K. A., Winston, C., and Yan, J. (2005). “Uncovering the distribution of motorists’ preferences for travel time and reliability.” Econometrica, 73(4), 1367–1382.
Small, K. A., Winston, C., and Yan, J. (2006). Differentiated road pricing, express lanes, and carpools: Exploiting heterogeneous preferences in policy design, Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs, 53–96.
PTV. (2007). VISSIM user’s manual—V.4.30, Karlsruhe, Germany.
Washington State Department of Transportation. (2007). SR 167—HOT Lanes Pilot Project, ⟨http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr167/hotlanes⟩ (Jul. 14, 2007).
Wiedemann, R. (1991). “Modeling of RTI-elements on multi-lane roads.” Advanced telematics in road transport, Vol. DG XIII.
Yan, J., Small, K. A., and Sullivan, E. C. (2002). “Choice models of route, occupancy, and time of day with value-priced tolls.” Transp. Res. Rec., 1812, 69–77.
Yin, Y., and Lou, Y. (2007). “Dynamic tolling strategies for managed lanes.” Proc., The 86th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board (CD-ROM), Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, Washington, D.C.
Zmud, J., Peterson, S., and Douma, F. (2007). “Preliminary before and after results of the I-394 HOT lane panel survey.” Proc., The 86th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board (CD-ROM), Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, Washington, D.C.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 135 • Issue 10 • October 2009
Pages: 677 - 686
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Nov 1, 2007
Accepted: May 12, 2009
Published online: Sep 15, 2009
Published in print: Oct 2009
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.