The growing number of trucks using urban freeways has caused transportation officials to seek innovative strategies for providing truck mobility in ways that do not add to freeway congestion. One of the strategies being considered in several locations is truck-only toll (TOT) lanes. This paper presents a methodology for identifying candidate TOT lanes in urban freeway corridors. The criteria used to select candidate freeway segments include freeway level of service, truck volumes, truck percentage of total freeway flow, crashes, and trucker willingness to pay. These criteria are applied to the Atlanta, Georgia freeway system to illustrate the application of the screening approach. The paper also includes a discussion of the process for determining different toll rates that achieve the objective of maximum revenue generation, an acceptable level of service, a TOT lane utilization of greater than 50%, and a truck diversion rate from local roads to the TOT lanes.
Samenvatting