The reliability effects of peak hour lanes or a new regional road network : an application of SMARA. How does the introduction of peak hour lanes in the Netherlands affect the reliability of travel time? And what is the effect of developing a new autonomous regional network of secondary roads (ARN+)? SMARA, a model developed by TNO Inro in cooperation with the ‘Netherlands Institute for Spatial Research’ (‘Ruimtelijk Plan Bureau’) and Modelit, yields the answers. Constructing peak hour lanes is a utilization measure, developing an ARN+ is a structural measure. It is important to consider the mutual coherence between the short-term utilization measures and the long-term structural measures. The computations for the peak hour lanes have been performed on the actual network, the computations for the ARN+ on the network as expected in 15 years. The peak hour lanes have been introduced and evaluated in SMARA. The reliability of travel times for car drivers has increased on most roads where a peak hour lane is applied. On some roads however, the introduction of a peak hour lane does not yield a significant effect. (Author/publisher)
Abstract