Safety Performance of High-Occupancy-Vehicle Facilities Evaluation of HOV Lane Configurations in California

Abstract

Collision data from high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) facilities with two different types of access, continuous and limited, are examined in this paper. The findings show that HOV facilities with limited access offer no safety advantages over those with continuous access. Compared with continuous access HOV lanes, a higher percentage of collisions were concentrated on limited-access HOV lanes. Limited-access HOV lanes also had higher collision rates. Findings from investigating the relationship between collision rates in HOV lanes with respect to shoulder width, length of access, and proximity of access to neighboring ramps are also documented. These findings provide enhanced understanding about the effects of geometric factors on the collision rates in HOV lanes.