Introduction
Sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), researchers at the University of Texas Arlington (UTA) and the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) are conducting a research project that investigates the benefits and drawbacks of providing preferential treatment to high-occupancy-vehicles (HOVs) on managed lanes. To gain information for the study, an Internet survey was conducted from May to July in 2006. The survey, tailored for two different cities, was available in both English and Spanish on separate Dallas and Houston web sites at HoustonTravelSurvey.org and DallasTravelSurvey.org. The Internet survey customized questions so that only relevant questions were asked to each respondent.
The survey collected data on:
- Personal travel patterns including reasons for choosing the current travel mode(s)
- Managed lane opinions
- Stated preference on mode choice based on hypothetical travel and toll scenarios
- Demographic information
With various outreach efforts made to increase public awareness of the survey and to encourage participation from low-income and minority groups, the survey generated a total number of 4,634 responses, with 2,026 from the Dallas / Fort Worth (Dallas) area and 2,562 from the Houston area.