Planning Truck-Only Lanes: Emerging Lessons from the Southern California Experience

Abstract

Recent efforts to develop truck-only facilities in the United States are discussed. The rationale for truck-only highways is described, and the history of efforts to separate trucks and automobiles on the nation's roadways is presented. The truck lane program of the Southern California Association of Governments is one of the most ambitious programs of its type in the United States. Preliminary analysis of truck lanes for SR-60 and I-710 is described. SR-60 is an east–west corridor linking downtown Los Angeles with the warehouse and manufacturing districts of the San Gabriel Valley and the Inland Empire. 1-710 is the major access route to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Both freeways each have one of the highest truck volumes in California, and truck mobility on these corridors is a significant problem. Truck lane projects on SR-60 and I-710 are in the feasibility analysis stage and much has been learned in these early studies. Various issues are addressed, including the trade-off between limiting access to improve operational costs and limit capital costs, need to generate demand, time-of-day distribution of truck traffic and its relationship to potentially benefit truck mobility, and need for improved analytical tools. Also described are issues related to facility design and configuration, demand analysis, and toll analysis.