Metropolitan areas are facing increasing congestion but financial resources to providenew or expanded transportation infrastructure will be limited in the future. Moreover,environmental constraints limit expansion of the highway footprint in urban travelcorridors. This paper assesses a strategy to alleviate recurring congestion onmetropolitan highway systems by adding “dynamic” capacity during peak periods usingshoulders as travel lanes, along with variable peak-period user charges levied on alllanes to manage demand and pay for the capacity improvements. It presents an analysisof the traffic, delay, fuel consumption, CO_2 emissions, and cost and revenue impacts.The paper then discusses various technical and public acceptance issues with regard tothe concept, and how these issues might be addressed.
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