High occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane management system : amendment A.

829714263PDFTech Reporthttp://bibpurl.oclc.org/web/48867CA11-2187UCB-ITS-PRR-2011-1065A0375CaliforniaCalifornia. Dept. of Transportation. Division of Research and InnovationVaraiya, PraviSharafsaleh, AshkanKohli, VarunEdwards, DanielGomes, GabrielUniversity of California, Berkeley. California Partners for Advanced Transportation TechnologiesUnited States. Federal Highway AdministrationUS Transportation CollectionThis report describes a system designed to provide Single Occupancy Hybrid Vehicles (SOHVs) restrictionmessages dynamically to drivers through variable message signs. This system will allow California tocomply with federal requirements (that Single Occupancy Hybrid Vehicles (SOHVs) must be excludedfrom High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes if their speed performance is degraded) by providing a way forCaltrans Traffic Management Centers (TMCs) to determine whether or not SOHVs should be permitted inHOV facilities. In turn, they could disseminate that information through control of variable message signsthat indicate to drivers which vehicles are permitted in the HOV lane.The work performed under this project represents a step forward to understanding various HOV restrictionscenarios and their impact on HOV lane and mainline congestion. In this project, researchers studied, viasimulations, the effects of permitting or restricting eligible single occupant hybrid vehicles (SOHV) from use ofHOV facilities. The team simulated various control scenarios on a selected corridor (25 mile segment ofCalifornia Interstate-210 Eastbound). Results from the simulations showed that reduction in vehicles eligible touse HOV lane (not just SOHV but any vehicle) could reduce not only the delay experienced by HOV vehiclesbut also the total system delay.This high-level system design was presented in sufficient detail to allow implementation as software or arelational database. Implementation would allow for the simulation of traffic scenarios to be tested againstreal data. This should be the next step in the development of this system