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National Road Pricing Conference

Added Capacity - HOT Lane Workshop
Workshop Presentation

Slide 1

Added Capacity - HOT Lane Workshop

National Road Pricing Conference
June 4, 2010

Jennifer Tsien, PBS&J
Angela Jacobs, Federal Highway Administration

Photos. Collection of photos having to do with HOT lanes. For visual interest.

Slide 2

Workshop Purpose

Provide hands-on practice in applying lessons learned and best practice from implemented projects across the country

  • Understand the challenges in implementing pricing projects
  • Move pricing forward in your area

Slide 3

Workshop Agenda

  • Review of Project
  • Break into groups for exercises
  • Five subject areas covered
    • 5-10 minute overview of subject area
    • 20-25 minutes to complete exercise
    • Break for lunch after second round of exercises
  • Group reports

Slide 4

Subject Areas

  • Planning
  • Operations
  • Design
  • Funding and Finance
  • Outreach

No specific order, all have overlapping elements

Slide 5

Our Project

  • Length: 15 miles

  • 6 lanes with full shoulders

  • 165,000 AADT and growing

  • Peak period speeds as low as 30 mph

  • Competing Facilities

    • Arterial servers suburban community at the end of the study corridor
    • Nearby radial freeway to be expanded in the near future

  • Transit Facilities

    • Serves entire corridor
    • 2 Park and Ride lots
Graphic. Visual diagram of the Added Capacity project - cropped.

Slide 6

Graphic. The diagram shows a 15-mile radial freeway with 6-lanes and an Average Annual Daily Traffic (AADT) of 165,000. The Freeway connects downtown employment on the lower left corner and a suburban community in the upper right corner. This community has a population of 20,000; a medium income of $75,000; 20 percent minority, and 1.9 automobiles per household. The freeway peak travel time on the general purpose lane from this suburban community to downtown is 20-30 minutes. There are two park and ride locations along the freeway with transit service. The one located next to the suburban community in the upper right corner has a transit peak travel time of 25-30 minutes. The other park and ride lot is located next to a suburban community north of the freeway 8-miles from downtown. The freeway peak travel time on the general purpose lane from this suburban community to downtown is 12-16 minutes. This suburban community has a population of 40,000; a medium income of $40,000, 40 percent minority, and 1.3 automobiles per household. There is a competing arterial connecting the suburban community and the downtown employment center below the radial freeway. The arterial is 20 mile in length with peak travel time of 25-45 minutes. There is a competing radial freeway straight north of the downtown employment. This competing freeway is very congested and is currently 4-lanes to be expanded to 6-lanes in the future. For the overall diagram there is a total travelshed population of 200,000; a $50,000 median income; 30 percent minorities, and 1.5 autos per household.

Slide 7

Project Characteristics

  • Corridor History
    • Congestion worsening
    • Downtown businesses seeking alternatives to bring more commuters downtown
    • Opposition to capacity improvements on adjacent radial corridor from environmental interests
  • Corridor demographics
    • Varies by sub-area
    • Total travelshed population = 200,000
    • $50,000 median income
    • 30% minorities
    • 1.5 autos per household

Slide 8

Project Characteristics

General Purpose Lanes

  • 6 lanes with 10' shoulders
  • 165,000 AADT and growing
Bar Graph. Bar graph showing Traffic Volume by time-of-day. Peak hours include 6:00-9:00 am and 4:00-7:00 pm with the maxium number of vehicles per hour occurring between 7:00 and 8:00 am and 5:00 and 6:00 pm. Vehicles per hour doesn't begin to fall to its lowest level until 7:00 pm and steadily decreases until 2:00 am. The hours between the two peaks stay around 8,000 to 10,000 vehicles per hour.

Slide 9

Project Characteristics

Project Partners

  • State DOT
    • Owner of lanes and ROW
    • Operator of freeway
  • Transit authority
    • Operator of express bus service and park-and-ride facilities
  • Regional toll authority
    • Operates one toll road in region
      • Cash and transponder-based electronic tolling
  • Metropolitan Planning Organization

Slide 10

Project Characteristics

  • Legal authority – HOT and express allowed by state statute
  • Regional policies – No policies on toll rate setting, occupancy, etc.
  • Project partners – state DOT (owner of ROW), transit authority, regional toll authority, state police
  • Toll authority currently operating one toll road in region with ETC (transponder) and cash
  • Environmental clearance – FONSI expected

Slide 11

Project Characteristics

  • Cross section
    Graphic. Cross section of the 6-lane roadway. Six lanes with 10' shoulders. Each general purpose lane is 12'.
  • Total right of way available: 200 feet
  • Access
    • Location and method of access undetermined
  • Enforcement
    • Subject to design and location

Slide 12

Project Characteristics

  • Estimated project costs
    • Capital costs: $ 50,000,000
    • Annual operating costs: $ 1,000,000
  • Available funding
    • State is committed to contributing $ 28,000,000
  • Traffic and revenue studies - none
  • Revenue sharing potential – Regional toll authority, private partner
  • Possible funding partners - Regional toll authority, private partner

Slide 13

Planning

  • Establish goals and objectives and clearly communicate a vision
  • Take advantage of opportunities
  • Maintain flexibility
  • Engage project partners and encourage agency cooperation

Slide 14

Planning Exercise

Screen Capture. Screen capture image from the workshop exercises file, planning section.

Slide 15

Operations

  • Develop a Concept of Operations to guide the process
  • Establish Operational Policy
  • Leverage technology and operational strategies
  • Implement and maintain stakeholder group
  • Identify design and legislative impacts of operational goals
  • Enforcement strategies

Slide 16

Operations Exercise

Screen Capture. Screen capture image from the workshop exercises file, operations section.

Slide 17

Design

  • Identify user groups for the HOT lanes
  • Provide safe and efficient design
  • Provide enforcement areas
  • Communicate to the public at the roadside

Slide 18

Design Exercise

Screen Capture. Screen capture image from the workshop exercises file, design section.

Slide 19

Funding and Finance

  • Consider any and all funding and/or financing mechanisms
  • Available assistance through federal programs
  • Stakeholders
  • Revenue sharing

Slide 20

Finance Exercise

Screen Capture. Screen capture image from the workshop exercises file, finance section.

Slide 21

Outreach

  • Identify project champions
  • Conduct market research and identify issues
  • Develop clear and concise messages
  • Communicate project goals
  • Continue from project development through operations
  • Create brand awareness

Slide 22

Outreach Exercise

Screen Capture. Screen capture image from the workshop exercises file, outreach section.

Slide 23

Breakout Group Reports

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