Dynamic Toll Concept to Assess Feasibility of High-Occupancy Vehicle Lane on Kyungbu Freeway, South Korea

Abstract

This paper presents a feasibility assessment and field survey for high-occupancy toll (HOT) lane implementation as an alternative improvement to the existing high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) facility on the Kyungbu Freeway in South Korea. Various factors such as traffic congestion, vehicle speed, traffic volume, safety issues, equity concerns, HOV–HOT enforcement issues, and toll pricing were evaluated, including carrying out motorist surveys. Eighty percent of motorist survey respondents confirmed the need for a HOT lane as a means to reduce travel time delays and traffic congestion on the Kyungbu Freeway. A dynamic toll concept based on the allowable traffic volume in the HOT lane and the vehicle speed difference between the HOT and general purpose (GP) lanes was then applied as the basis of dynamic control of traffic flow in the HOT lane. This means that toll fees vary dynamically in real time as a function of the traffic conditions in the HOT and GP lanes (i.e., changes in vehicle speed), subject to the traffic volume threshold for the HOT lane (i.e., ≤1,350 vehicles per hour per lane for Class C–level of service). For this study, the dynamic toll rate ranged from about $1.00 to $6.00, depending on the traffic conditions. Overall, the results of this analytical and field survey study have indicated that it is both feasible and practical to operate a HOT lane facility on the Kyungbu Freeway using a simple dynamic toll system.