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HOT Lanes/Value Pricing: Planning and Evaluation of Multiclass Service

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Abbreviations

HOT Lane:

A limited access (expressway) separated highway service that permits qualifying HOVs to travel free, but allows non-HOVs to use the service for a fee (toll) [1]. Also HO/T.

Managed lanes:

Separated lanes that are operated or controlled actively in a way to limit congestion; charging a toll is one way to manage and an occupancy requirement is another. Other management tools include temporary shoulder use and dynamic signing (see http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freewaymgmt/managed_lanes.htm and http://managed-lanes.tamu.edu/).

Congestion pricing:

A toll or user charge on a facility that varies by time of day in accordance with demand, so as to maintain traffic flow on the facility at a freely flowing speed. Flat tolls that do not vary with demand, i.e., by time of day, do not qualify as pricing, and are not included within the scope of managed lanes.

HOV:

A high-occupancy vehicle, meaning there is at least one passenger in addition to the driver; the definition or criterion may require a minimum of two passengers (HOV 3+) in order to be eligible to use the HOV reserved lane.

Reserved lane:

A separated dedicated lane restricted to one or more special purposes for which not all vehicles are eligible. Bus lanes, HOV lanes, HOT lanes, truck lanes, and express lanes are forms of reserved lanes. Heavy vehicles may not be permitted at all on restricted lanes.

Toll:

Payment by a user vehicle to access a reserved lane; the toll may vary by time of day or with the level of demand so as to manage congestion and may also vary by vehicle type.

Expressway:

A design standard for multilane divided highways with grade-separated interchanges. HOT lanes are installed on mostly urban expressways.

Express lane:

A lane that allows some traffic to go faster than the default alternative, by restricting entry or skipping stops. A common usage refers to a tolled lane on an expressway, whether HOVs are discounted or not.

Express toll lanes (ETL):

Restricted lanes that are tolled, perhaps with discounts for HOVs; facilities that charge discounted rates for HOVs are also referred to as hybrid systems.

General purpose lanes (GP):

Lanes available for unrestricted traffic; also mixed flow lanes.

Slug lines:

Persons who line up at transit stops offering themselves as passengers to allow autos to meet the criterion for HOV eligibility in the same corridor.

Value pricing:

Application of the microeconomic theory of efficient pricing to the problem of highway congestion.

ORT:

Open road tolling, allowing vehicles with transponders to maintain highway speed and change lanes while the toll is collected electronically.

VOT:

The value of travel time, or the opportunity cost per hour of time spent in traveling, including congestion.

VOR:

The value of reliability, which is the consistency and predictability of travel times. Both speed and reliability are goals of managed lanes.

VMT:

Vehicle miles of travel.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. US Department of Transportation, Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, 02142, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Dr. Douglass B. Lee Jr. & Dr. Kent M. Hymel

Authors
  1. Dr. Douglass B. Lee Jr.
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  2. Dr. Kent M. Hymel
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Correspondence to Douglass B. Lee Jr. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Mehrdad Ehsani

  2. Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Fei-Yue Wang

  3. Center for Urban Transportation Research, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

    Gary L. Brosch

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Lee, D.B., Hymel, K.M. (2013). HOT Lanes/Value Pricing: Planning and Evaluation of Multiclass Service. In: Ehsani, M., Wang, FY., Brosch, G.L. (eds) Transportation Technologies for Sustainability. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5844-9_520

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