Many transportation agencies face a growing demand for increasing road capacity, even though budgets are static or increasing very slowly. As a result, the agencies are considering using lane management strategies that regulate demand, separate traf?c streams to reduce turbulence, and utilize available and unused capacity. Application of such operational policies is evolving into the notion of “managed lanes.” A managed lane is typically a “freeway-within-a-freeway” where a set of lanes within the freeway cross section is separated from the general-purpose lanes. This course is a primer on managed lanes and provides the transportation engineer or planner an overview of the implementation and operation of managed lanes. This course is based on the U.S. Federal Highway Administration document, “Managed Lanes A Primer,” August 2008.

Learning Objectives

• De?ning managed lanes
• Pricing, vehicle eligibility, and access control for managed lanes
• Best management practices in planning and project development, facility monitoring and evaluation, and life-cycle considerations
• Managed lane case studies