MACROSCOPIC APPROACH FOR EVALUATING DIAMOND HOV LANE OPERATIONS

This paper presents a macroscopic simulation approach to evaluate diamond HOV lane operations in a complex freeway system. The model is based on the simple continuum approach and treats the flows in diamond and general-purpose lanes separately. The merging and diverging points between these two flows are determined internally based on the assumed behavior of drivers' lane-changing maneuvers. Further, the interaction between the two flows is explicitly treated by modeling the merging/split process at ingress and egress areas. The resulting HOV lane simulation module has been incorporated into the Kronos freeway simulation software and an example analysis of future HOV lane scenarios was conducted using a 10-mile section of the I-94 freeway in Minneapolis, Minnesota