Abstract
High occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes allow carpool vehicles to bypass congestion and save travel time. However, HOV lanes are often underutilized, leading to a waste of road capacity or the loss of travel time advantage over general purpose lanes. To address this issue, high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes have gained popularity. HOT lanes, when properly priced, preserve the advantage of HOV lanes, while allowing single-occupant vehicles to pay for access, making use of spare HOT lane capacity. To inform better pricing and utilization of HOT lanes, this study analyzed traffic data from both HOT and general purpose lanes to identify patterns in how toll rates impact traffic flow.
