A Hybrid High-occupancy Regulation Policy for Congested Freeway Sections

A Hybrid High-occupancy Regulation Policy for Congested Freeway Sections

Traffic congestion, especially highway congestion, has become a significant problem for transportation systems in most countries. Recently, some countries have introduced traffic regulation policies such as High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Lane and High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) Lane. In this study, we propose a hybrid HOV regulation policy and apply to a segment, a new elevated section from Wugu to Yangmei of the Taiwan National Freeway No. 1 system. The nested Logit model is used for modeling road user behaviors, and traffic flow data are collected from Institute of Transportation (IOT), MOTC. The conclusions are as following: (1) In the two-occupancy-plus (2+) regulation scenario, the GP-GP (general purpose) lanes highway policy is always the best one; (2) In the three-occupancy-plus (3+) regulation scenario with NTD 5 toll, the HOT-HOT lanes highway policy is always the best one; (3) In our cases, when the government wants to implement the HOT, the toll should be least than NTD 15.; and (4) If the carpooling cost is too high, the HOV or HOT policy is not able to reduce the total travel cost for the whole highway system. The numerical analysis results would have policy implications for the freeway bureau and government office to provide a better freeway service during peak periods on a congested freeway corridor.