Study Details

Study Title: Effects of Using High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes on Safety Performance of Freeways

Authors: Abuzwidah and Abdel-Aty

Publication Date:JAN, 2017

Abstract: The use of High Occupancy Toll Lanes (HOT-Lanes) system has risen dramatically in the recent years. Applying this system helps relieve congestions and generate revenues to meet some of the transportation needs. In 2008, Florida converted its underused High-Occupancy-Vehicle (HOV-lanes) on I-95 to HOT-lanes called 95-Express. Although the HOT-Lanes offer users reliable travel times by managing traffic volume through dynamic tolls especially during peak hours, there is a lack of research that quantifies the traffic safety impact of this system. The main goal of this study is to investigate and provide an up-to-date traffic safety impact of the HOT-Lane system of the whole roadway segment. It is also to investigate for the first time the safety impact of applying this system on each of the HOT-lanes and on the General-Purpose Lanes (GP-Lanes) separately. The results proved that the HOV-to-HOT conversion does not significantly affect the safety performance of the roadway segments as a whole. However, there is an indication that the safety at the HOT-Lanes was significantly improved by reducing all crash categories. On the other hand, all crash categories have increased on the GP-Lanes; this is logical since the crashes remain the same for the whole segment (HOT-Lanes and GP-Lanes) and decreased on the HOT-Lanes, they are expected to increase on the GP-Lanes. Therefore, it can be concluded that the HOT-lanes are safer than the GP-Lanes. Overall, future research is strongly recommended to reach clear conclusions about the safety effectiveness of this system.

Study Citation: Abuzwidah, M. and M. Abdel-Aty. "Effects of Using High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes on Safety Performance of Freeways". Presented at the 96th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Paper No. 17-06894, Washington, D.C., (2017).


CMFs Associated With This Study

Category: Roadway

Countermeasure: Convert High-Occupancy-Vehicle (HOV) lanes to High-Occupancy-Toll (HOT) lanes

CMF CRF(%)QualityCrash TypeCrash SeverityRoadway TypeArea Type
0.9643 StarsAllK,A,B,CPrincipal Arterial Interstate
0.9913 StarsRear endAllPrincipal Arterial Interstate
0.88123 StarsAngle,Sideswipe,OtherAllPrincipal Arterial Interstate
0.89113 StarsOtherAllPrincipal Arterial Interstate
0.72284 StarsAllK,A,B,CPrincipal Arterial Interstate
0.61394 StarsRear endAllPrincipal Arterial Interstate
0.62384 StarsAngle,Sideswipe,OtherAllPrincipal Arterial Interstate
0.77233 StarsOtherAllPrincipal Arterial Interstate
1.08-83 StarsAllK,A,B,CPrincipal Arterial Interstate
1.27-274 StarsRear endAllPrincipal Arterial Interstate
1.25-254 StarsAngle,Sideswipe,OtherAllPrincipal Arterial Interstate
1.22-224 StarsOtherAllPrincipal Arterial Interstate
1.19-193 StarsAllAllPrincipal Arterial Interstate
1.28-283 StarsAllOPrincipal Arterial Interstate
0.8203 StarsAllAllPrincipal Arterial Interstate
0.63373 StarsAllOPrincipal Arterial Interstate
1.23-232 StarsAllAllPrincipal Arterial Interstate
1.35-353 StarsAllOPrincipal Arterial Interstate