Abstract
In order to determine the safety effects, if any, of concurrent-lane High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) implementations, a search of the results of existing research was conducted. Research results were reviewed for the following HOV designs: 3-8 ft (0.9-2.4 m) buffer; 8 ft (2.4 m) buffer [raised 6 in. (15 cm)]; 13 ft (4.6 m) buffer; and 0-2 ft (0-0.6 m) buffer. Although the research on the first three designs is too limited to be conclusive, the ten separate research efforts on the 0-2 ft (0-0.6 m) buffers indicate that building such lanes resulted in accident rates being significantly higher than they would have been had general purpose lanes been added. (A)