On May 11th 1998, Leeds City Council introduced the first high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane in the United Kingdom and the first urban HOV lane in Europe. 1.5km of the existing nearside lane on the A647 dual carriageway into Leeds was converted from an all purpose lane to an HOV lane. The main objectives were to: (1) encourage more HOVs leading to a general increase in car occupancy; (2) provide time savings and more consistent journey times for existing HOVs; and (3) provide time savings and more consistent journey times for buses. Last year at ETC, Derek Quinn presented the provisional early results of the Leeds scheme. This paper: (1) presents the results of the detailed evaluation of the Leeds HOV lane; and (2) explores the application of the urban HOV principle to benefit public transport on EU urban road networks. The detailed evaluation has been based on extensive traffic surveys, roadside interviews and home interviews to establish reactions to the scheme. The results show the scheme is a success and it is likely to be made permanent later this year. The paper goes on from the detailed evaluation to consider the pros and cons of introducing HOV lanes instead of bus lanes in situations where either bus flows are too low to justify a dedicated lane, or traffic flows are too high to remove an existing lane solely for bus use.
Abstract