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1 Across the United States, transportation agencies and metropolitan regions face signifi- cant congestion issues and public perception challenges in generating revenue to support infrastructure. To mitigate congestion and implement transportation improvements, many public agencies are turning to tolled or priced managed lanes. The use of tolling on managed lanes can help achieve a wide variety of goals, including traffic management, revenue genera- tion, transit service enhancements, economic mobility, and environmental mitigation. The general public has some skepticism about the purpose and objectives of priced managed lanes. Notably, project sponsors cannot typically explain other rationales beyond the use of pricing to generate revenue. Tolls have a long history as a means to pay for the cost of implementation and construction, and that purpose is well understood. However, the ability to use pricing to influence demand is a very complex phenomenon, and therefore, is difficult to explain to a nontechnical audience. Generally, suspicion tends to rise as com- plexity increases. Managed lanes tend to vary by geometric design (e.g., number of lanes, access points) and rules of operation (e.g., permitted carpools, hours of access). These features tend to vary within individual states and regions, contributing to the overall confusion. Success- ful projects effectively communicate the purpose of the priced managed lanes by emphasizing the benefits, implementing pilot trials, and using incremental implementation. For this study, researchers used a survey to ask state departments of transportation (DOTs) about the goals, major challenges, and critical audiences to engage for implement- ing priced managed lanes in their state. The most notable finding from the survey was the large disparity between the goals that state DOTs have for priced managed lanes and the public assumption for those goals. A total of 16 states nationally are either planning, constructing, or operating priced managed lanes, and all of those states list improving mobility and traffic management as a significant goal. However, only seven states listed revenue gen- eration as a major goal. In the survey, states cited they were more commonly concerned about high toll rates, equity, and the burden on select populations. Private-sector involve- ment and toll exemptions (e.g., electric vehicles, carpools) had a lower level of concern. States also cited that state lawmakers, locally elected officials, and adjacent residents (i.e., people who live near the corridor) were the most critical groups to engage in order to influ- ence the success of a project. Interestingly, social media, television, and newspaper reports commonly had a low level of importance. In addition, six cases were examined and are presented in this synthesis as examples of how different states and agencies addressed challenges to their priced managed lanes. The projects profiled for this research consist of the following: ⢠95 Express in Miami, Florida. A high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) to high-occupancy toll (HOT) lane conversion project that has operated for at least a decade, but a maximum toll cap policy of $1.50 per mile limits the ability to manage for demand. S U M M A R Y Emerging Challenges to Priced Managed Lanes
2 Emerging Challenges to Priced Managed Lanes ⢠I-10 Metro ExpressLanes in Los Angeles, California. A HOV-to-HOT lane conversion proj- ect that added an additional lane for each direction. The project achieved success when it opened 6 years ago, but a 25% to 30% HOV violation rate challenge the operational validity of the project. Part of the problem stems from driver confusion about the use of switchable transponders. ⢠I-405 Express Toll Lanes in Bellevue and Lynnwood, Washington. A project that converted and expanded an existing HOV lane in metropolitan Seattle. The facility had a smooth opening, but high demand and an increasing share of violators present difficulties for operators. ⢠I-66 Inside the Beltway Express Lanes in Fairfax and Arlington Counties, Virginia. A project that converted an HOV lane and did not have any formal cap on how high the toll rate can increase. Upon opening, tolls went as high as $47 for some to take a 10-mile trip, and media coverage was very critical. ⢠I-635 East TEXpress Lanes in Dallas, Texas. A project to implement priced lanes received heavy scrutiny from state lawmakers, despite overwhelming support from locally elected officials. ⢠I-77 Express Lanes in Charlotte, North Carolina. A project to deliver a public-private partner- ship to an existing, underutilized HOV lane. Local residents expressed confusion about how the project would benefit them and felt that tolls were an additional tax. The case examples primarily used stakeholder interviews to solicit advice on key chal- lenges and lessons learned from attempts at project implementation. The interviews occurred over the phone, and questions focused on the context and factors that influ- enced successful and unsuccessful strategies. The researchers interviewed agency represen- tatives from state DOTs, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and county-based authorities. Specific questions addressed the project timeline, key constituencies, and mitiga- tion approaches. Overall, a set of successful mitigation practices emerged across the six case examples. Some of the successful practices included: ⢠Providing a plethora of data and transparency for the use of toll revenue; showing how excess funds supported transit programs (Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority [LA Metro], Virginia DOT [VDOT]). ⢠Comparing an alternative with toll lanes to an alternative with the same number of lanes, but no tolling (North Carolina DOT [NCDOT]). ⢠Meeting individually with opposing stakeholders and elected officials; presenting a tool- kit to help explain the purpose of pricing (North Central Texas Council of Governments [NCTCOG]). ⢠Forming an advisory group composed of both supporters and opponents to systematically address a loud chorus of concerns (NCDOT). ⢠Adjusting and modifying geometric design features in the corridor, such as shoulder lanes and intermediate access points (Washington State DOT [WSDOT]). ⢠Considering improvements to vehicle occupancy enforcement and changes to toll-exempt requirements (LA Metro). ⢠Increasing fines for carpool violators and focusing on habitual offenders (WSDOT). ⢠Considering piloting advancements in imaging technology (LA Metro). As a result of this synthesis, the researchers identified a set of four research gaps for further investigation that address the following topics: (1) public communication and under- standing, (2) operations and performance monitoring, (3) enforcement, and (4) maximum toll caps. A future project on public communication and understanding can investigate and recommend strategies and techniques for explaining the purpose and intent of pricing beyond revenue generation for a nontechnical audience. Further research on advancing
Summary 3 the use of performance monitoring can help to standardize practices that agencies, such as VDOT and WSDOT, have developed to publicize real-time data feeds and performance dashboards. An enforcement research project can identify best practices by investigating the use of emerging technologies, such as imaging systems and smartphone declaration processes. Finally, a project that examines the influences of maximum toll caps on perfor- mance can quantifiably estimate the degradation caused by a cap versus lane separation type and other geometric design features.
