Estimating the Benefits of Managed Lanes
Record Type: UTC

Managed Lanes (ML) offer travelers the option of congestion free travel in corridors where the general purpose lanes (GPL) are congested. To ensure the MLs do not become congested (and often to help pay for the construction of the lanes) travelers have to pay a toll to use the MLs. This toll varies by time of day or by congestion level, increasing as demand for the lane increases. Thus travelers have to make a decision, often at the spur of the moment, between a tolled, free-flow trip, or an untolled congested trip. This decision is a difficult one for transportation planners to predict. The decision varies by traveler and the same traveler can easily make a different decision on any given trip due to the constraints of that trip. The majority of patrons on the few MLs in operation use the MLs only occasionally. For example, on the rare occasion the traveler is running late for a meeting. Thus, that one trip in uncongested traffic was very valuable to the traveler. Unfortunately, the ability to predict and value these infrequent uses does not exist. Thus the true value, and therefore benefits, of MLs is unknown. This project will ask Katy Freeway travelers several versions of a stated preference survey just before the opening of the new Katy MLs. Using the responses from the survey the researchers will see what improvements can be made to stated preference surveys that will more accurately predict the traveler’s true willingness to pay for the MLs and therefore the true value of the MLs.
Start date: 2008/1/1
End date: 2010/1/31
Status: Active
Contract/Grant Number: DTRT06-G-0044
Secondary Number: 00013
Total Dollars: 80000
Source Organization: University Transportation Center for Mobility
Date Added: 03/04/2008
Index Terms: Road pricing, Managed lanes, Traffic congestion, Toll roads, Stated preferences, Travel behavior, Research projects,

University Transportation Center for Mobility
http://utcm.tamu.edu
Texas Transportation Institute
Texas A&M University System
3135 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-3135
USA
Phone: (979) 845-2538
Fax: (979) 845-9761

Tooley, Melissa S
Phone: (979) 845-8545
Fax: (979) 845-9761
Email: m-tooley@tamu.edu

Texas A&M University, College Station
http://civil.tamu.edu
Zachry Department of Civil Engineering
3136 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-3136
USA

Texas A&M University, College Station
http://agecon.tamu.edu/
Department of Agricultural Economics
2124 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-2124
USA

Burris, Mark
Phone: (979) 845-9875

Shaw, W Douglass
Phone: (979)845-3555
Email: wdshaw@tamu.edu