Appendix A. NCHRP Project 03-73 Separation of Vehicles – CMV- Only Lanes Task 7 – Interim Report NCHRP Project 3-73: Separation of Vehicles - CMV-Only Lanes A. NCHRP Project 03-73 Separation of Vehicles – CMV-Only Lanes Task 7 – Interim Report A.1 Introduction This interim report document provides results of the first phase of research on National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 03-73 Separation of Vehicles – Commercial Motor Vehicle-Only Lanes project. It presents a review and discussion of a wide range of issues relevant to planning, designing, and evaluating a variety of concepts from CMV-Only Lanes that should be useful to planners and policy makers in the public and private sector. It also presents an evaluation of available data and its suitability to conduct additional analyses in Phase II of the research plan. A.1.1 Project Overview For a number of years, there has been growing interest in commercial motor vehicle (CMV)- only lanes and several notable proposals for CMV-only lane systems/projects have appeared in the planning and traffic engineering literature. To a large extent, this growth in interest has been related to the growth in truck traffic relative to automobile traffic and the contribution of truck traffic to congestion. Heavy trucks have a greater impact on capacity than their sheer volume would suggest, especially when mixed with automobiles. Separation of autos and trucks may be a beneficial way of building more system capacity in certain circumstances. A number of studies also have suggested that CMV-only lanes that are tolled may present a viable means of financing system capacity improvements. The argument has been made that trucks have a higher value of time than autos, and may therefore be willing to pay a higher price for congestion relief. A number of studies have shown that system reliability is especially critical in the movement of high-value, time-sensitive commodities, and that the reliability benefits of CMV-only lanes (due to the combination of less overall congestion and the incident-reduction potential of truck-auto separation) may provide added value for which truckers/shippers would be willing to pay. It also has been suggested that separation of autos and trucks may have significant safety benefits. Autos are far more maneuverable than heavy trucks, yet auto drivers often do not take this into account when making certain fast response driving maneuvers and this can lead to increased crashes. Further, when trucks and autos are involved in crashes, they are far more likely to be fatal crashes than when crashes involve only autos. The objectives of the Separation of Vehicles – CMV-Only Lanes project are to compile data from actual applications and studies of emerging concepts and use these data to present a profile of the benefits and costs of CMV-only lanes. This information will serve as a reference guide for planners who may be considering CMV-only lane concepts in corridor studies or other Cambridge Systematics, Inc. A-1 NCHRP Project 3-73: Separation of Vehicles - CMV-Only Lanes planning applications. The analyses in the project also will provide data that practitioners can use to support their own evaluations of CMV-only lane projects. The research comprises 10 tasks for meeting the objectives of the project: 1. Conduct a literature review of existing CMV-only facilities as well as proposed concepts, which will provide information for subsequent tasks. 2. Describe planning process issues associated with the development of CMV-only lanes. 3. Describe major configurations and identify and analyze key design issues. 4. Discuss opportunities to apply Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)/Commercial Vehicle Operations (CVO) to CMV-only lanes and the benefits that can accrue from these deployments. 5. Examine opportunities to operate longer combination vehicles (LCV) and heavyweight trucks on CMV-only lanes. 6. Explore issues and opportunities associated with tolling and privatization of CMV-only lanes. 7. Prepare an interim report that summarizes the findings and data collected in the first six tasks (described in more detail in Chapter 1.3). 8. Compile available field and modeling data into a performance evaluation of different CMV-only lane concepts. 9. Evaluate CMV-only lanes in terms of relative costs and benefits. 10. Prepare a final report that summarizes the results of the analyses conducted in the project. This report will include a summary of existing CMV-only facilities, a description of different configurations and the factors that influence the feasibility of each configuration, a discussion of performance data, and a summary of the benefits and costs of different CMV-only lane systems. A.1.2 Definition of Commercial Motor Vehicle A “commercial motor vehicle” can be variously defined. In response to a request from the project Technical Panel, a working definition of a CMV was developed for this project. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) under the Code of Federal Regulations – Title 49 (49 CFR) Part 390 (Rulemaking Procedures – Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations) defines commercial motor vehicles for U.S. Department of Transportation vehicle registration purposes as: • Vehicles having a gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating (in the case of combination vehicles) of at least 10,001 pounds; or A-2 Cambridge Systematics, Inc. NCHRP Project 3-73: Separation of Vehicles - CMV-Only Lanes • Vehicles designed or used to transport more than eight passengers (including the driver) for compensation; or • Vehicles designed or used to transport more than 15 passengers (including the driver), but not for compensation; or • Vehicles used in transporting material found by the Secretary of Transportation as being hazardous under 49 U.S.C. 5103, and transported in a quantity requiring placarding under 49 CFR, Subtitle B, Chapter 1, Subchapter C. This standard Federal definition for CMVs includes not only trucks – based on a weight- and commodity- (hazardous) based categorization – but also passenger vehicles such as buses. Another, more restrictive Federal definition is based on commercial driver licensing (CDL) requirements (Part 383: Commercial Driver’s License Standards; Requirements and Penalties). This definition includes trucks with a gross vehicle weight or gross combination weight rating of at least 26,001 pounds, trucks carrying hazardous materials requiring placarding (same as Part 390), and vehicles carrying 16 or more passengers, including the driver. Finally, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) classifies nonpassenger vehicles by the number of axles and number of units, as opposed to the FMCSA’s definition based on weight or commodity. Single- and multitrailer trucks (i.e., not single unit trucks), for example, fall within Classes 8 to 13 in FHWA’s scheme. The Technical Panel agreed with Cambridge Systematics’ recommendation that the types of vehicles included in the CMV definition for this project will be directly dependent on the types of vehicles best served by various CMV-only lane configurations and not tied to any of the Federal definitions, as stated in a memorandum on the subject dated April 15, 2008. Consequently, as trucks are implicitly the focus of this research, passenger vehicles falling under the CMV classifications under Federal regulations (discussed above) will not be included as CMVs. Since the work approach for this project involves analyzing different types of truck- only lane configurations, flexibility in the CMV definition has been adopted to accommodate different types of trucks, based on the type of application of truck-only lanes (note that the terms “CMV-only” and “truck-only” generally will be used interchangeably in this document). A.1.3 Purpose of Interim Report This interim report is the first of two deliverables for the Separation of Vehicles – CMV-Only Lanes project. This deliverable represents Task 7. The second project deliverable, the final report, will be delivered at the conclusion of Task 10. This document summarizes the work performed in Tasks 1 through 6. It includes: • Comprehensive description of current and past experience with CMV-only lanes, including proposed facilities; • Evaluation of the feasibility of the available data to compile a performance evaluation and a benefit/cost analysis; and Cambridge Systematics, Inc. A-3 NCHRP Project 3-73: Separation of Vehicles - CMV-Only Lanes • Commentary on aspects of the data and analysis that are notably weak and that may impact the performance evaluation and benefit/cost analysis. Cambridge Systematics will meet with the Technical Panel after submitting the interim report to discuss the condition of the data. The project team will determine if any adjustments must be made to the workplan to reflect the availability of data with which to conduct the remaining proposed analyses in Tasks 8 and 9. A.1.4 Organization of Document This document contains nine chapters. These chapters are: • Chapter 1.0, Introduction – Provides an overview of the project, a definition of a commercial motor vehicle for this project, and the purpose of this report; • Chapter 2.0, Task 1 – Literature Review – Details the literature review conducted as a foundation for subsequent tasks; • Chapter 3.0, Task 2 – Planning Process Issues – Describes planning process issues associated with the development of CMV-only lanes; • Chapter 4.0, Task 3 – Configurations and Design Issues and Related Institutional Questions – Describes major configurations