This collaborative effort will enable HOV facility managers in California to ensure effective operations of High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) and High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) facilities using automated vehicle-occupancy verification (AVOV) and enforcement systems.

Efficiently operated High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) or High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes increase travel speed, reliability, and the vehicle and person-carrying capacity of roadways in urban areas. The success of these HOV/HOT facilities as a viable transportation strategy is dependent upon the enforcement of occupancy regulations. On-site monitoring and enforcement of these regulations is difficult, expensive, and potentially hazardous for enforcement officers.

As more managed lanes (i.e., lanes with limited access and/or pricing) emerge that employ a widening array of users and an increasing mix of managed lane strategies in combination with HOV/HOT, enforcement has become more complicated, especially with regard to identifying high occupancy vehicles that receive special access or pricing for travel within a varied traffic stream. For priced lanes, persistent violation problems can result in a significant amount of lost revenues.

This project is being undertaken as a collaborative effort with the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) and will identify, test, and evaluate promising concepts and methods for automated vehicle-occupancy verification (AVOV) and enforcement that can be adopted for permanent field implementation.

An existing SANDAG-sponsored project performed by the HNTB Corporation will identify the most promising technologies for roadside occupancy detection. The project includes the demonstration of a limited-duration pilot test to determine how well the detection systems meet requirements.

The most promising candidates or combination of candidates will be selected for pilot testing and evaluation at one or more HOV facilities. In addition to the planned pilot on a portion of existing managed lanes on Interstate 15 in San Diego County, more test locations may be identified as further research is conducted. The research panel consists of the sponsoring agencies, the CCIT research team, and the respective HOV facility operator and enforcement agency.

PATH and CCIT will conduct the monitoring and evaluation of the AVOV and enforcement systems to be deployed as part of this effort. CCIT will lead the effort in assessing the user acceptance of the AVOV and enforcement systems as well as develop a deployment package that will serve as a guideline for future use of proven AVOV and enforcement systems in California and elsewhere.

Further, the research proposed will also explore how automated vehicle-occupancy technologies can be integrated with other applications, such as automated toll violation operations; managed lane enforcement operations; vehicle occupancy data collection; and HOV/HOT lane performance monitoring, reporting, and evaluation.

The technical proof of concept will be complemented by an assessment of the legal and institutional barriers to implementation of automated managed lane enforcement. Deliverables will document and synthesize the results of the literature review, expert interviews, and focus groups and make recommendations for future applications, implementation, and research.

This collaborative effort will enable HOV facility managers in California to ensure effective operations of High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) and High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) facilities using automated vehicle-occupancy verification (AVOV) and enforcement systems.

Efficiently operated High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) or High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes increase travel speed, reliability, and the vehicle and person-carrying capacity of roadways in urban areas. The success of these HOV/HOT facilities as a viable transportation strategy is dependent upon the enforcement of occupancy regulations. On-site monitoring and enforcement of these regulations is difficult, expensive, and potentially hazardous for enforcement officers.

As more managed lanes (i.e., lanes with limited access and/or pricing) emerge that employ a widening array of users and an increasing mix of managed lane strategies in combination with HOV/HOT, enforcement has become more complicated, especially with regard to identifying high occupancy vehicles that receive special access or pricing for travel within a varied traffic stream. For priced lanes, persistent violation problems can result in a significant amount of lost revenues.

This project is being undertaken as a collaborative effort with the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) and will identify, test, and evaluate promising concepts and methods for automated vehicle-occupancy verification...