Converting Existing General-Purpose Lanes to High-Occupancy/Toll Lanes: An Exploratory Evaluation

Abstract

This paper presents a policy-level financial evaluation of options to mitigate congestion on metropolitan freeways where expanding capacity is difficult due to cost or environmental constraints. The options involve converting general-purpose lanes to priced High-Occupancy/Toll (HOT) lanes in combination with incentivized ridesharing. We estimate the financial impacts on a hypothetical 6-lane freeway (i.e., with 3 lanes per direction). The results of the analysis suggest that the options can generate sufficient revenue to support operations and may also generate surplus revenues to fund capital costs.