Responses to Managed Lanes
This section focuses on three issues related to managed lanes: (1) interest in using managed lanes; (2) reasons for interest in managed lanes; and (3) reasons for NOT being interested in using managed lanes.
Need a description of managed lanes? Please read this brief explanation.
Interest in Using Managed Lanes
After an explanation of managed lanes, survey respondents were asked to respond to the question: would you be interested in using managed lanes? The responses were analyzed by user characteristics. The results presented in Tables 6 thru 9 were adjusted with the 2005 ACS data.
Table 6: Interest in Houston and Dallas By User Characteristic
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There was considerable interest in the managed lane concept in both Houston and Dallas. In general, the interest in Dallas area was slightly higher that that in the Houston area. Current toll road users also indicated higher interest rate than non-toll road users. There was no apparent pattern in response to interest in using managed lanes among income groups in both areas. However, data did show some differences in interest in using managed lanes by race/ethnicity, trip purpose, and travel mode. In Dallas, the percentage interest of African-American users was lower than that of white and Hispanic groups. The percentage interests of commute, SOV, HOV3+, and vanpool users were higher that of their counterpart groups. In Houston, Hispanic user groups showed a lower interest rate than those of white and African-American groups. Conversely, toll road users on recreational trips, HOV travelers and vanpool users indicated higher interest rates than their counterparts.
Results in Tables 7 to 9 confirmed that, overall, current toll road users showed a higher interest in using managed lanes than non-toll road users. In addition, overall survey results indicated that private vehicle users, as well as households with two vehicles, were more interested in using managed lanes than transit users and other vehicle ownership users. Overall the sample did not show a clear correlation between level of interest and household income, although the percentage interest of users with household incomes over $100K, regardless of toll road usage, was much higher than with other income groups.
Table 7: Interest in Managed Lanes by Mode
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Table 8: Interest in Managed Lanes by Household Income
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Table 9: Interest in Managed Lanes by Vehicle Ownership
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Reasons for Interest in Using Managed Lanes
In the survey, each respondent who expressed an interest in using managed lanes was given a chance to rank different reasons why they were interested in using the managed lanes. The ranking was on a 1 to 5 scale, 5 being the most important. Table 10 presents the average scores computed for each reason given by different mode users after weighting by the 2005 ACS data.
Overall, travel time savings (4.6) and increased travel time reliability (4.6) ranked as the strongest contributing factors for interest in managed lane use. The scores for both questions indicated that all user groups tend to rank these reasons as very important. The reasons of less stressful and no large trucks on managed lane were ranked after the above two reasons, with an adjusted score of about 4.2. Overall results are consistent for both toll and non-toll users. The results indicated that Texas travelers supported the idea of prohibiting large trucks from using managed lanes and will want to use managed lanes because they provide superior operational performance to the general-purpose lanes.
The total average score for the reason of able to use carpool/vanpool on the managed lane was the lowest among all factors. While it is not surprising that SOV travelers ranked this factor lower than other modes except for motorcycle, it is interesting to observe that most current carpool and vanpool users ranked the reason of ability to use the managed lanes while driving alone higher than the reason of ability to use the managed lanes while carpooling. This finding was important because without additional incentives to remain in a carpool, at least some current carpools are likely to revert to SOVs.
Table 10: Average Scores Given for Interest in Managed Lanes
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Reasons for No Interest in Using Managed Lanes
Those respondents who were not interested in managed lanes were directed to a different set of questions to rank why they were not interested in managed lanes. As for the reasons of interest, the ranking of disinterest was also on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most important. Table 11 presents the average scores computed for each reason given by different mode users after adjusted by the 2005 ACS data.
The primary reason travelers were not interested in using managed lanes appears to be an opposition to the tolls required for their use, as seen from an average score of 3.8 for current toll road users and 4.4 for non-toll road users. This is not surprising as tolls are generally unpopular with the public. The opposition to managed lanes can be found from the specific reasons provided by respondents in the other factor category, as the most often cited reason in that category being that taxes already paid for the road. This reason was similar to that of ranking the toll as a major impediment to managed lane use.
The loyalty to current carpool and transit modes makes the managed lanes concept undesirable, as seen from the relatively high scores for reasons of use bus or train, will not change and carpool, will not change in Table 11. This is understandable as managed lanes would require current carpool and transit users to share their current facility with SOVs or become an SOV and pay a toll.
The low scores given to reasons involved with some operational or technical issue are also interesting. These results show that the main opposition to the concept of managed lanes does not rise from the fact that users may need to have credit card or install a transponder in their vehicles in order to be able to access these lanes, nor was it a result of the expected higher perceived complexity of these facilities compared to general-purpose lanes. This does not necessarily indicate that these issues are completely unimportant; however, they were at most secondary concerns.
Table 11: Average Scores Given for Disinterest in Managed Lanes
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