EVALUATING AND PLANNING HOV LANE ENFORCEMENT

The different high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) strategies introduced on California freeways in recent years have included reserved ramps, preferential lanes, and bypass lanes at metered ramps. Several factors have frustrated efforts to enforce the traffic laws that accompany these strategies; these include personnel limitations, enforcement priorities, public hostility, confusion, and physical constraints imposed by the geometry and engineering features of specific projects. As a consequence, violations have increased on certain types of HOV lanes. A summary is presented of the results of a two-year study designed to measure and evaluate the effect of different enforcement options, engineering features, and educational programs on violation rates for various transportation system management freeway strategies and trace the resulting impact of these violation rates on safety, freeway performance, and public attitudes. During the study, statistics were assembled on violation rates, enforcement levels, and operating performance on California HOV lanes; drivers were surveyed; special design features were investigated; and different levels and combinations of routine and special enforcement activities were tested on a variety of HOV lanes. Violation rates were measured before, during, and after the assignment of Highway Patrol officers to enforce specific HOV lanes and metered freeway ramps, accident levels were recorded before and after the installation of HOV lanes, the benefits and costs of HOV lane enforcement were analyzed, and the results of the analysis were used in recommending a program of future enforcement for California HOV lanes. (Author)