CHANGES IN LEGAL AND ILLEGAL WEAVING ACTIVITY AFTER THE RESTRIPING OF I-85 HOV LANES IN ATLANTA

摘要

In October 2011, a large section of the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) carpool lane onAtlanta’s I-85 was converted into a high-occupancy toll (HOT) lane. The facility remains non4barrier-separated, with double-white and double dashed lines indicating where vehicles maymerge into and out of the HOT lane. The number and location of weaving locations changeswhen the HOT lanes are implemented, which is likely to impact the effective capacity of thelanes in the corridor. In addition, automated enforcement techniques will be implemented toidentify vehicles that weave into and out of the lanes at restricted locations. To help assesswhether the new facility is more efficient, the research team at Georgia Institute of Technology(GT) is monitoring changes in weaving activity and vehicle throughput before and after the HOTconversion. Video data are being collected along the I-85 corridor between I-285 and SR-316and researchers are quantifying changes in weaving activity. Although the lanes have not yetopened, the Georgia Department of Transportation did contract for re-striping of the existingHOV facility, eliminating one weave section. Data sets extracted from video recordingscollected to date have been generated, and some preliminary analysis of the data attempts todescribe changes in weaving patterns observed to date.