It’s clear that expensive road widenings won’t solve downstate New York’s congestion problems. However, innovative alternatives to general purpose lanes could offer some sustainable relief, help raise revenue, and boost transit service. That’s why NYSDOT began a “Managed Use Lanes Study” last year, and will discuss the study’s early findings at public meetings next month.

NYSDOT broadly defines “managed use” lanes as including any operational or design feature that increases roadway efficiency. This definition encompasses familiar measures like carpool lanes, busways, ramp metering, reversible lanes, and variable tolling. It also includes rarer tools like truck-only toll lanes, bus-on-shoulder programs, and so on. The study team will ultimately release a blueprint showing how advanced traffic management techniques could work around NYC. Thus far, the team has examined global best practices in a “State of the Practice” report released last week.

In America, more and more states are implementing high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes, carpool/bus lanes which single-occupant vehicles can enter by paying a toll. Just this month, Washington State opened a dynamically priced HOT lane on State Route 167 in the Seattle area (tolls for single-occupancy vehicles vary from $0.25 to $9, depending on traffic). HOT lanes are often more efficient than carpool lanes and can provide revenue for road maintenance or transit. For example, HOT lanes on San Diego’s I-15 fund new express and local bus routes operating in the same corridor. Locally, HOT lanes have been planned for the Tappan Zee Bridge, and carpool lanes on the Long Island Expressway could be ripe for conversion.

Some of the most advanced traffic management tools are coming from Europe. On Dutch highways, speed limits dynamically change to keep traffic flow smooth when incidents or sudden congestion occurs (the report calls this “speed harmonization”). In Germany, road signs change when an alternate route becomes faster than a main route (“dynamic re-routing”). Both measures require extensive technological investment.

The report also cites local examples. The New Jersey Turnpike, whose widely spaced interchanges deter many short- and medium-distance travelers from using it, is cited as “probably the best example of an operating facility that has successfully employed access management as a lane management strategy” — an ironic description when one considers the NJ Turnpike Authority’s unwillingness to seriously evaluate lane management as an alternative to widening the NJ Turnpike and Garden State Parkway (see also “Kolluri: Thinking Bigger, but Not Necessarily Better, 11/13/07).

Public meetings on the Managed Use Lanes Study will take place next month in NYC’s five boroughs. Details are posted on the TSTC calendar.