IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v44y2010i2p65-75.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The smoothing effect of carpool lanes on freeway bottlenecks

Author

Listed:
  • Cassidy, Michael J.
  • Jang, Kitae
  • Daganzo, Carlos F.

Abstract

Real data show that reserving a lane for carpools on congested freeways induces a smoothing effect that is characterized by significantly higher bottleneck discharge flows (capacities) in adjacent lanes. The effect is reproducible across days and freeway sites: it was observed, without exception, in all cases tested. Predicted by an earlier theory, the effect arises because disruptive vehicle lane changing diminishes in the presence of a carpool lane. We therefore conjecture that smoothing can also be induced by other means that would reduce lane changing. The benefits can be large. Queueing analysis shows that the smoothing effect greatly reduces the times spent by people and vehicles in queues. For example, by ignoring the smoothing effect at one of the sites we analyzed one would predict that its carpool lane increased both the people-hours and the vehicle-hours traveled by well over 300%. In reality, the carpool lane reduced both measures due to smoothing. The effect is so significant that even a severely underused carpool lane can in some instances increase a freeway bottleneck's total discharge flow. This happens for the site we analyzed when carpool demand is as low as 1200Â vph.

Suggested Citation

  • Cassidy, Michael J. & Jang, Kitae & Daganzo, Carlos F., 2010. "The smoothing effect of carpool lanes on freeway bottlenecks," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 65-75, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:44:y:2010:i:2:p:65-75
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965-8564(09)00122-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cassidy, Michael J., 1998. "Bivariate relations in nearly stationary highway traffic," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 49-59, January.
    2. Cassidy, Michael J. & Rudjanakanoknad, Jittichai, 2005. "Increasing the capacity of an isolated merge by metering its on-ramp," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 896-913, December.
    3. Daganzo, Carlos F. & Cassidy, Michael J., 2008. "Effects of high occupancy vehicle lanes on freeway congestion," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 42(10), pages 861-872, December.
    4. Bertini, Robert L. & Cassidy, Michael J., 2002. "Some observed queue discharge features at a freeway bottleneck downstream of a merge," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 683-697, October.
    5. Cassidy, Michael J. & Daganzo, Carlos F. & Jang, Kitae & Chung, Koohong, 2006. "Empirical Reassessment of Traffic Operations: Freeway Bottlenecks and the Case for HOV Lanes," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt31h8z81t, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    6. Dahlgren, Joy, 1998. "High occupancy vehicle lanes: Not always more effective than general purpose lanes," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 99-114, February.
    7. Cassidy, Michael J. & Bertini, Robert L., 1999. "Some traffic features at freeway bottlenecks," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 25-42, February.
    8. Menendez, Monica & Daganzo, Carlos F., 2007. "Effects of HOV lanes on freeway bottlenecks," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 41(8), pages 809-822, October.
    9. Newell, G. F., 1993. "A simplified theory of kinematic waves in highway traffic, part II: Queueing at freeway bottlenecks," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 289-303, August.
    10. Munoz, Juan Carlos & Daganzo, Carlos F, 2002. "Fingerprinting Traffic From Static Freeway Sensors," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt1mf4n2w8, University of California Transportation Center.
    11. Dahlgren, Joy, 2002. "High-occupancy/toll lanes: where should they be implemented?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 239-255, March.
    12. Daganzo, C. F. & Cassidy, M. J. & Bertini, R. L., 1999. "Possible explanations of phase transitions in highway traffic," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 365-379, June.
    13. Laval, Jorge A. & Daganzo, Carlos F., 2006. "Lane-changing in traffic streams," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 251-264, March.
    14. Daganzo, Carlos F. & Laval, Jorge & Munoz, Juan Carlos, 2002. "Ten Strategies for Freeway Congestion Mitigation with Advanced Technologies," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt4kd6v6qf, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    15. Newell, G. F., 1993. "A simplified theory of kinematic waves in highway traffic, part I: General theory," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 281-287, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Davis, L.C., 2012. "Mitigation of congestion at a traffic bottleneck with diversion and lane restrictions," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 391(4), pages 1679-1691.
    2. Jang, Kitae & Cassidy, Michael J., 2011. "Dual Influences on Vehicle Speeds in Special-Use Lanes and Policy Implications," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt0dd859tf, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    3. Lapardhaja, Servet & Jalota, Devansh & Doig, Jean & Almubarak, Abdullah & Cassidy, Michael, 2021. "Testing alternative treatments for underused carpool lanes on narrow freeways," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 139-149.
    4. Mogens Fosgerau & Kurt Van Dender, 2013. "Road pricing with complications," Transportation, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 479-503, May.
    5. Shan, Xiaonian & Hao, Peng & Boriboonsomsin, Kanok & Wu, Guoyuan & Barth, Matthew & Chen, Xiaohong, 2018. "Partially limited access control design for special-use freeway lanes," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 25-37.
    6. Li, Xiang & Sun, Jian-Qiao, 2017. "Studies of vehicle lane-changing dynamics and its effect on traffic efficiency, safety and environmental impact," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 467(C), pages 41-58.
    7. Jin, Wen-Long, 2013. "A multi-commodity Lighthill–Whitham–Richards model of lane-changing traffic flow," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 361-377.
    8. Guler, S. Ilgin & Cassidy, Michael J., 2012. "Strategies for sharing bottleneck capacity among buses and cars," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 46(10), pages 1334-1345.
    9. Boysen, Nils & Briskorn, Dirk & Schwerdfeger, Stefan & Stephan, Konrad, 2021. "Optimizing carpool formation along high-occupancy vehicle lanes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 293(3), pages 1097-1112.
    10. Zheng, Zuduo, 2014. "Recent developments and research needs in modeling lane changing," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 16-32.
    11. Li, Xiaopeng & Cui, Jianxun & An, Shi & Parsafard, Mohsen, 2014. "Stop-and-go traffic analysis: Theoretical properties, environmental impacts and oscillation mitigation," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 319-339.
    12. Cassidy, Michael J. & Kim, Kwangho & Ni, Wei & Gu, Weihua, 2015. "A problem of limited-access special lanes. Part II: Exploring remedies via simulation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 320-329.
    13. Kim, Kwangho & Cassidy, Michael J., 2012. "A capacity-increasing mechanism in freeway traffic," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 46(9), pages 1260-1272.
    14. Guler, Ilgin & Cassidy, Michael, 2010. "Deploying Underutilized Bus Lanes at Key Nodes in a Road Network," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt3fh273s9, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    15. Jang, Kitae & Cassidy, Michael J., 2012. "Dual influences on vehicle speed in special-use lanes and critique of US regulation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(7), pages 1108-1123.
    16. Cassidy, Michael J. & Kim, Kwangho & Ni, Wei & Gu, Weihua, 2015. "A problem of limited-access special lanes. Part I: Spatiotemporal studies of real freeway traffic," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 307-319.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jang, Kitae & Cassidy, Michael J., 2012. "Dual influences on vehicle speed in special-use lanes and critique of US regulation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(7), pages 1108-1123.
    2. Cassidy, Michael J & Jang, Kitae & Daganzo, Carlos F, 2008. "The Smoothing Effect of Carpool Lanes on Freeway Bottlenecks," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt6fk4s29c, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    3. Jang, Kitae & Cassidy, Michael J., 2011. "Dual Influences on Vehicle Speeds in Special-Use Lanes and Policy Implications," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt0dd859tf, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    4. Cassidy, Michael J. & Daganzo, Carlos F. & Jang, Kitae, 2008. "Spatiotemporal Effects of Segregating Different Vehicle Classes on Separate Lanes," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt6c69j2vv, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    5. Zheng, Zuduo, 2014. "Recent developments and research needs in modeling lane changing," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 16-32.
    6. Blandin, Sébastien & Argote, Juan & Bayen, Alexandre M. & Work, Daniel B., 2013. "Phase transition model of non-stationary traffic flow: Definition, properties and solution method," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 31-55.
    7. Yeo, Hwasoo, 2008. "Asymmetric Microscopic Driving Behavior Theory," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt1tn1m968, University of California Transportation Center.
    8. Jin, Wen-Long, 2013. "A multi-commodity Lighthill–Whitham–Richards model of lane-changing traffic flow," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 361-377.
    9. Jin, Wen-Long & Gan, Qi-Jian & Lebacque, Jean-Patrick, 2015. "A kinematic wave theory of capacity drop," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 316-329.
    10. Li, Xiaopeng & Ouyang, Yanfeng, 2011. "Characterization of traffic oscillation propagation under nonlinear car-following laws," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 45(9), pages 1346-1361.
    11. Menendez, Monica & Daganzo, Carlos F., 2007. "Effects of HOV lanes on freeway bottlenecks," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 41(8), pages 809-822, October.
    12. Kim, Kwangho & Cassidy, Michael J., 2012. "A capacity-increasing mechanism in freeway traffic," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 46(9), pages 1260-1272.
    13. Yan, Qinglong & Sun, Zhe & Gan, Qijian & Jin, Wen-Long, 2018. "Automatic identification of near-stationary traffic states based on the PELT changepoint detection," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 39-54.
    14. Laval, Jorge A. & Leclercq, Ludovic, 2008. "Microscopic modeling of the relaxation phenomenon using a macroscopic lane-changing model," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 42(6), pages 511-522, July.
    15. Oh, Simon & Yeo, Hwasoo, 2015. "Impact of stop-and-go waves and lane changes on discharge rate in recovery flow," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 88-102.
    16. Jin, Wen-Long, 2010. "A kinematic wave theory of lane-changing traffic flow," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(8-9), pages 1001-1021, September.
    17. Michael Z. F. Li, 2008. "A Generic Characterization of Equilibrium Speed-Flow Curves," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(2), pages 220-235, May.
    18. Zhou, Fang & Li, Xiaopeng & Ma, Jiaqi, 2017. "Parsimonious shooting heuristic for trajectory design of connected automated traffic part I: Theoretical analysis with generalized time geography," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 394-420.
    19. Cohen, Maxime C. & Jacquillat, Alexandre & Ratzon, Avia & Sasson, Roy, 2022. "The impact of high-occupancy vehicle lanes on carpooling," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 186-206.
    20. Jin, Wen-Long, 2017. "A first-order behavioral model of capacity drop," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 438-457.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:44:y:2010:i:2:p:65-75. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.