Janey Camp, research associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, is partnering with the Tennessee Department of Transportation and Deo Chimba, professor of civil and architectural engineering at Tennessee State University, to assess whether Tennesseans would favor converting existing High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane facilities into High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes on the outbound and inbound HOV corridors for Interstates 65, 24 and 40 in Nashville.
Camp is leading a public opinion survey focused on critical aspects associated with implementation, operation and perception of converting HOV to HOT lanes. Responses will allow the team to model various scenarios to provide TDOT with recommendations. The voluntary survey is anonymous and confidential.
Currently, Tennessee's HOV lanes are underused during peak times, and motorists consistently violate the rules for their use. A previous collaboration among Camp, Chimba and TDOT showed that current violation rates for the HOV lanes in Middle Tennessee are approximately 80 percent to 90 percent, and typical peak time use rates are 15 percent to 20 percent. Studies of Google traffic data and traffic simulations show that the outbound and inbound HOV corridors for Interstates 65, 24 and 40 in Nashville suffer from a series of daily bottlenecks during peak travel time.
"Participating in this survey offers Tennesseans a chance to shape their commutes and driving experiences in the years ahead," Camp said. "We intend to use these responses to evaluate how well HOT lanes will work in conjunction with the city's projected population growth, system-based traffic changes and ridesharing estimates."
The team's research will identify the technical and public policy issues and anticipated impacts on the interstate corridors, on all drivers (including commuters and truck drivers), on land use patterns, on existing transportation modes and on regional travel behaviors and patterns. This information will give the team insight on whether the conversion of HOV lanes to HOT lanes would reduce congestion, lower emissions and fuel costs, and reduce stop-and-go traffic.
