HOV
Facilities Primer
High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes are a strategy that
local governments have employed to reduce traffic
congestion. The idea is simple. Single-occupant vehicle
(SOV) travel is wasteful, particularly at peak travel
times. Restricting certain highway lanes to exclusive use
by multi-occupant vehicles encourages carpooling,
vanpooling, and transit bus ridership. The result is a
familiar sight - congested traffic in the general-purpose
highway lanes while vehicles travel near the speed limit in
the parallel HOV lanes. HOV lanes were introduced in the
late 1960s. Major growth in the establishment of these
facilities occurred in the mid-to-late 1980s and 1990s.
With concerns about popullation effectively eliminating new
highway construction in many metropolitan areas, some
transportation agencies now view HOV lanes as the only way
of adding highway capacity without compromising air
quality. The U.S. Department of
Transportation promotes HOV
construction, providing financial assistance through
federal-aid highway programs
History
of HOV Facilities
(By Dr. Katherine F. Turnbull, Associate
Director,
Texas Transportation
Institute)
High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) facilities have been part of
the urban transportation landscape for the past 30 years.
During this time, HOV lanes have had their share of
proponents and critics. Recently some groups have argued
that HOV lanes are outdated and no longer benefit the
transportation system. Others continue to promote HOV
facilities as one way to deal with increasing levels of
traffic congestion in major metropolitan areas. What have
we learned about HOV facilities in the past three decades?
Recent studies sponsored by the National Cooperative Highway Research
Program (NCHRP), the
Transit Cooperative Research Program
(TCRP), and
the Federal
Highway Administration (FHWA) - as well as
ongoing state and local monitoring and evaluation
efforts - provide insight into what works and what does
not work with HOV facilities, and what future trends
might develop. Most HOV projects are intended to improve
the people-moving capacity rather than the
vehicle-moving capacity of congested freeway corridors.
As a result, common objectives for HOV facilities are to
•Increase
the average number of persons per vehicle;
•Preserve
the people-moving capacity of a freeway;
•Improve
bus operations;
•Enhance
mobility options for travelers
The travel time savings and improved trip reliability of
HOV facilities provide incentives for individuals to change
from driving alone to carpooling, vanpooling, or riding the
bus. HOV facilities come in all shapes and sizes, and no
"one size fits all." Many of the early HOV lanes developed
in response to specific issues and opportunities in
congested freeway corridors. The opening of the bus-only
lane on Shirley Highway (I-395) in Northern Virginia
outside Washington, D.C., in 1969 and the contraflow bus
lane on the approach to New York - New Jersey's Lincoln
Tunnel in 1970 represent the first freeway HOV applications
in the country. Both of these projects still serve
significant volumes of commuters. The development of HOV
lanes in North America progressed slowly during the 1970s
and early 1980s. Major growth occurred from the mid-1980s
to the late 1990s. Currently, there are 96 HOV projects on
freeways and in separate rights-of-way in 30 metropolitan
areas in North America. These facilities account for
approximately 2,000 centerline miles of HOV lanes. Major
HOV systems operate in Houston and Dallas, Texas; Seattle,
Washington; the Los Angeles and Orange County area and the
San Francisco Bay region in California; the Newark, New
Jersey, and New York City area; and the Northern Virginia,
Washington, D.C., and Maryland region. Other facilities are
in various stages of planning, design, and
construction.
