Technical Report Documentation Page 1. Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient's Catalog No. FHWA/TX-07/0-5547-1 4. Title and Subtitle 5. Report Date INTERMEDIATE ACCESS TO BUFFER-SEPARATED MANAGED September 2006 LANES Resubmitted: November 2006 Resubmitted: February 2007 Published: March 2007 6. Performing Organization Code 7. Author(s) 8. Performing Organization Report No. Kay Fitzpatrick, Marcus A. Brewer, and Eun Sug Park Report 0-5547-1 9. Performing Organization Name and Address 10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) Texas Transportation Institute The Texas A&M University System 11. Contract or Grant No. College Station, Texas 77843-3135 Project 0-5547 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address 13. Type of Report and Period Covered Texas Department of Transportation Technical Report: Research and Technology Implementation Office September 2005-August 2006 P. O. Box 5080 14. Sponsoring Agency Code Austin, Texas 78763-5080 15. Supplementary Notes Project performed in cooperation with the Texas Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration. Project Title: Best Practices for Access between Toll Lanes and Free Lanes URL: http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-5547-1.pdf 16. Abstract The objective of this Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) research project was to develop guidance materials on intermediate access to a buffer-separated toll lane. To develop the material, researchers gathered other state guidelines, reviewed the literature, and recorded operations at five intermediate access sites. From videotapes of the sites, characteristics of approximately 8400 vehicles that moved into or out of the managed lane were recorded. Examples of the characteristics measured included where the vehicle entered or left the lane (early, within the opening, or late) and the lane of origin for the vehicle. Volume counts for 5-minute periods were associated with each maneuver. Approximately 9 percent of the vehicles crossed the solid white markings (i.e., were not in compliance with the pavement markings). Compliance was better for the longer access opening length (1500 ft) as compared to the 1160-ft access opening length. A surprisingly large number of maneuvers at the intermediate access openings (over 7 percent) involve vehicles passing slower-moving vehicles. At the two sites with the larger quantity of data between 40 and 80 percent of the passing vehicles involved a vehicle leaving the managed lane to pass a slower-moving managed-lane vehicle. Findings from one field site demonstrated that when presented with the opportunity to enter a managed lane that is located very close to an entrance ramp, drivers will attempt to cross multiple lanes to do so. 17. Key Words 18. Distribution Statement Intermediate Access, Managed Lanes, Buffer No restrictions. This document is available to the Separation, Weaving Maneuvers public through NTIS: National Technical Information Service Springfield, Virginia 22161 http://www.ntis.gov 19. Security Classif.(of this report) 20. Security Classif.(of this page) 21. No. of Pages 22. Price Unclassified Unclassified 106 Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) Reproduction of completed page authorized INTERMEDIATE ACCESS TO BUFFER-SEPARATED MANAGED LANES by Kay Fitzpatrick, Ph.D., P.E. Research Engineer Texas Transportation Institute Marcus A. Brewer, P.E. Assistant Research Engineer Texas Transportation Institute and Eun Sug Park, Ph.D. Associate Research Scientist Texas Transportation Institute Report 0-5547-1 Project 0-5547 Project Title: Best Practices for Access between Toll Lanes and Free Lanes Performed in cooperation with the Texas Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration September 2006 Resubmitted: November 2006 Resubmitted: February 2007 Published: March 2007 TEXAS TRANSPORTATION INSTITUTE The Texas A&M University System College Station, Texas 77843-3135 DISCLAIMER The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors, who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data presented herein. The contents do not necessarily reflect the official view or policies of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) or the Texas Department of Transportation. This report does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation. The engineer in charge was Kay Fitzpatrick, P.E. (TX-86762). v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project was conducted in cooperation with TxDOT and FHWA. The authors thank the members of TxDOT’s Project Monitoring Committee for their guidance during the study: • Joseph Carrizales, Austin District, TxDOT, Project Director • Bob Daigh, Austin District, TxDOT, Program Coordinator • Christine Conner, Austin District, Project Advisor • Linda Blume-Grimsely, San Antonio District, Project Advisor • Wade Odell, Research and Technology Implementation Office, TxDOT, Research Engineer The following individuals assisted the research team in identifying sites or in coordinating the data collection at a specific site. Their assistance contributed to the success of this project and their aid is greatly appreciated: • Jim Mims – Project Manager, Waller/West Harris Area Office, TxDOT Houston District • Daniel Loving – ITS Analyst, DalTrans Traffic Management Center, TxDOT Dallas District • Deborah Allen – Control Center Operator, DalTrans Traffic Management Center, TxDOT Dallas District • Rick Cortez – Freeway Management Engineer, DalTrans Traffic Management Center, TxDOT Dallas District • Nick Thompson – Operations Manager, Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) • Grant Schultz – Assistant Professor, Brigham Young University • David Schwartz – Utah Department of Transportation, Region 2 vi The following TxDOT personnel assisted the research team with reviews of the pavement markings proposed for the guidelines. Their assistance in understanding the tradeoffs between different markings is appreciated: • Michael Chacon, Traffic Operations Division, TxDOT • Doug Skowronek, Traffic Operations Division, TxDOT Assisting the authors of the report in collecting and reducing data or in analyzing the data were the following Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) staff: • Sara Roby, Student Worker • Curtis White, Student Worker • Ivan Lorenz, Associate Research Specialist • Todd Hausman, Associate Research Specialist • Jim Carvell, Senior Research Engineer • Ginger Goodin, Research Engineer vii viii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... xi LIST OF TABLES .....................................................................................................................xiii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................ 1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ....................................................................................................... 2 ORGANIZATION ...................................................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS RESEARCH............................................................ 5 BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................ 5 TYPES OF ACCESS TO AND FROM MANAGED LANES .................................................. 6 Continuous Access.................................................................................................................. 6 Restricted Access – Terminal ................................................................................................. 6 Restricted Access – Intermediate............................................................................................ 7 SAFETY ................................................................................................................................... 10 DESIGN OF INTERMEDIATE MANAGED-LANE ACCESS ............................................. 12 Buffer Opening ..................................................................................................................... 12 Buffer Width ......................................................................................................................... 15 TRAFFIC CONTROL FOR ACCESS ..................................................................................... 16 Signing .................................................................................................................................. 16 Markings ............................................................................................................................... 18 LOCATION OF ACCESS WITH RESPECT TO OTHER RAMPS ....................................... 19 CHAPTER 3 COLLECTION OF FIELD DATA................................................................... 23 SITE SELECTION AND EVALUATION............................................................................... 23 MANEUVERS DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................... 26 Data Collection with Camcorders......................................................................................... 26 Data Collection with TMC Cameras..................................................................................... 36 SPEED DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................................ 38 CHAPTER 4 REDUCTION OF FIELD DATA ..................................................................... 41 MANEUVERS DATA.............................................................................................................