Priority Lanes: Golden Mile Group

1. Priority Lanes: Golden Mile Group 27January 2010 Final

2. The Mayor’s Vision for London “London’s transport system should excel among those of global cities, providing access to opportunities for all its people and enterprises, achieving the highest environmental standards and leading the world in its approach to tackling urban transport challenges of the 21st century”

3. Contents • What are HOV/HGV Lanes? • Examples • Potential Benefits • Issues and Challenges • Enforcement • Factors of Success

4. HOV and HGV lanes prioritise different types of vehicles • High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes introduce the idea of designating a lane purely for use of vehicles carrying multiple occupants. This would include buses and other public transport services (e.g. Taxis) but also opens up the facilities for use by carpools and other HOVs. • ‘No-car’ or HGV lanes take the traditional bus lane one step further by opening up the facilities to include taxis and HGVs. These allow all road users except for cars to utilise the road space.

5. The primary objective of HOV lanes are to increase the people moving capacity of the road network • In London the following objectives should be aligned with the MTS: • Provide HOVs with more reliable trip times • Increase the movement of people • Reduce the overall vehicular congestion and motorist delay by encouraging greater HOV use through car pooling • Increase the overall efficiency of the system by allowing HOVs to bypass congestion to using lanes designated for their use • Improve air quality by decreasing emissions • Reduce vehicle trips and vehicle miles travelled through the conversion of SOVs to HOVs and subsequently reducing the number of vehicles on the road network.

6. Contents • What are HOV/HGV Lanes? • Examples • Potential Benefits • Issues and Challenges • Enforcement • Factors of Success

7. The appearance of the HOV lane will be dependant on the location and type of road • The UK currently has 2 HOV lanes in operation (Leeds and Bristol). • The USA is a leader in the introduction and development of HOV lanes, these have all been placed on major intercity routes.

8. Contents • What are HOV/HGV Lanes? • Examples • Potential Benefits • Issues and Challenges • Enforcement • Factors of Success

9. The main outcome of HOV lane operation is the conversion of SOV into HOVs, thereby increasing the people moving capacity of the road • The potential monetised benefits to the economy of HOV lane operation are: • Journey time savings • Fuel savings • Vehicle operating cost saving • Decongestion benefits • Air Quality Improvements (reduction in CO2, NOX, PM10) • The ability for any scheme to achieve the outcomes stated above will stem from the detailed design and format of each scheme.

10. The ability of a scheme to achieve the expected benefits will be in the design and location of the scheme. • Outcome Realisation • The designation of a HOV lane with 4+ or 3+ would provide higher people moving benefits than a 2+ lane, and would be likely to result in more opportunities for mode shift as people perceive greater journey time benefits. • It is likely that the value of time benefits for traffic would be negative due to the increased congestion in the SOV/general traffic lane. • Opportunities for mode shift increase with travel time and distance.

11. Contents • What are HOV/HGV Lanes? • Examples • Potential Benefits • Issues and Challenges • Enforcement • Factors of Success

12. The implementation of HOV lanes could decrease road safety with particular impacts on vulnerable road users • In ‘take-a-lane schemes, accident rates tend to be higher in the post implementation period due to the congestion impact of the scheme. This is due to the differentiation in speeds between the SOV and HOV lanes • Cyclists regard bus lanes as a relatively safe place to travel, given the limited interaction with other traffic. Allowing HOVs into the same lane will increase the flow along its length and could erode this benefit.

13. Traffic conditions do not show long term improvements Induced demand occurs through HOV lane schemes. In the UK schemes implemented experienced initial flow reductions but these were erased by the end of year 1. Schemes in Leeds and Bristol have both displayed an increase in vehicle occupancy. However, some data would suggest that this is not as a result of more people car sharing but rather people re-routing from other routes who already car share in order to benefit from the HOV lane. Increased numbers of vehicles in existing bus lanes could lead to a deterioration of bus journey times and bus reliability.

14. Environmental benefits are limited or non-existent • Queuing traffic is known to create more air pollution than traffic which is free flowing. Therefore air pollution benefits should arise from vehicles using the HOV lane. This improvement is likely to be outweighed by increased congestion and pollution in the general purpose lane. • Should mode shift occur from Sustainable modes, the number of vehicles removed from the network as a result of the HOV lane is relatively small. Therefore the effect that this has on vehicle emissions is small and likely to be outweighed by the impacts on the general purpose lane.

15. Contents • What are HOV/HGV Lanes? • Examples • Potential Benefits • Issues and Challenges • Enforcement • Factors of Success

16. Manual Enforcement is the only way to enforce HOV lanes at present • Enforcement of HOV lanes is imperative to maintaining their integrity and effectiveness. The advantages of priority lanes are lost if non-permitted users abuse restrictions • There is an absence of technology that can fully automate the detection of HOVs. The DfT are currently trialing automated technology to enforce HOV lanes but at present there is no camera with type approval for national roll-out. • The responsibility of enforcing compliance with a HOV lane would at present fall under the jurisdiction of the police. • Manual enforcement of HOV lanes requires suitable lay-by space for enforcement activities to be undertaken from.

17. Contents • What are HOV/HGV Lanes? • Examples • Potential Benefits • Issues and Challenges • Enforcement • Factors of Success

18. Journey time savings, common origin and destinations and congested conditions are key factors of success for implementing HOV lanes • Journey time savings of at least 1.5 minutes per mile between SOV and HOV. • Common Origins and Destinations • Congested corridor conditions serving trips toward town centres or activity centres. • Space to provide police enforcement lay-bys • Linked to Smarter Travel Measures (Travel Plans) • Width for 2 lanes of traffic either in form of a wide single carriageway or a dual carriageway. Previous studies have so far shown that 2 lane roads do not have enough capacity for HOV lanes. In general 3 lane roads with grade separated junctions prove most feasible. • Significant initial use of HOVs to ensure high utilisation of the HOV lane; this would stop empty-lane syndrome and provide good publicity for the scheme. Should empty lane syndrome persist public perception is that congestion would be relieved by reverting the scheme to general usage, this is especially the case in ‘take-a-lane’ schemes

19. Conclusions and Next Steps A blanket policy across all roads in London would not be sensible for the issues outlined above, instead roads should be considered on a case by case basis. Schemes would need to be supported by Smarter Travel Initiatives. Involvement and agreement of the relevant Policing authority would be needed (in this case the Metropolitan Police Service). External funding for the implementation of the scheme would be needed due to the limited budget of TfL. Prior to scheme development there would be a need to demonstrate the benefits of the scheme which should be enough mode shift to car-sharing to outweigh disbenefits and costs from congestion to general traffic.