This paper provides an overview and summary of the access metering experiment conducted at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey's Lincoln Tunnel facility during the Fall of 1993. The purpose of the experiment was to determine if improvements in the tunnel's productivity, trip time, and accident rate could be obtained through the use of access metering. The accident rate at the Lincoln Tunnel is comparable to other urban, highly-constricted and congested river crossing facilities. This accident rate is much higher than that typical of unconstricted interstate highway facilities. Approximately 40 million vehicles accumulate nearly 100 million vehicle miles of travel annually including the approach and tunnel roadways. This traffic flow experiences about 1,000 accidents per year. This is a rate of ten accidents per million vehicle miles travelled. The experiment's results showed that access metering reduced the stream turbulence by approximately 40%. This less turbulent flow supported both a higher throughput and a reduced average trip time. The test period was too short in duration to demonstrate a statistically significant decrease in the accident rate. However, the reduction in flow turbulence decreased motorist uncertainty, bringing about smoother traffic movement. (A)
Samenvatting