Many areas in the UK are considering the construction of high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes as a strategy for reducing congestion and providing people with additional travel options. As a consequence, the UK Department of Transport, Local Government, and Regions (DTLR) is conducting research into techniques to assess HOV lanes. This paper reviews transport modelling techniques for assessing HOV lanes that have been applied in the US and their applicability to situations in the UK. HOV lanes have been used in the US for nearly 25 years and in the last 10 years there has been significant planning and construction of new HOV facilities. HOV lanes can be of different types: barrier separated two way; barrier separated reversible flow; concurrent flow, buffer or non-separated contraflow; or queue bypasses. The paper begins with a short discussion of the history of carpooling and HOV lanes. This provides an understanding of why transport planners are interested in evaluating American schemes in the UK, followed by an overview of various modelling issues and then the US case studies and their applicability to the UK are discussed. The authors conclude with a discussion of activity based modelling approaches which they see as providing the best approach for assessment of potential HOV lanes.
Samenvatting