Q&A of the Day – What is The Impact of HOV Lanes in Florida?

Q&A of the Day – What is The Impact of HOV Lanes in Florida? 

Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.      

Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com     

Social: @brianmuddradio    

iHeartRadio: Use the Talkback feature – the microphone button on our station’s page in the iHeart app.       

Today’s Entry: @brianmuddradio do you have an opinion on HOV lanes on I95. Personally, I’ve read they have no impact other than to create congestion in the other lanes. I also read that the intention is to replace them all with express lanes. Thank you for all you do. 

Bottom Line: Times have changed quite a bit over the past few decades along Florida’s east coast but there are two dynamics that have been consistent...the cost of living increasing along with ever rising traffic times. For example, a recent study found that the average South Florida daily commuter spends 17 hours longer in traffic annually compared to a decade ago. Overall traffic congestion is up 3% over the last year alone. Among the ideas to address Florida’s ever-growing population, record levels of tourism, and thus consistently increasing traffic congression, have been the use of HOV, or High-Occupancy Vehicle lanes, and yes, more recently increased use of express lanes. You mentioned you’d read the use of them has only shifted the traffic burden to other lanes. So, about that... 

Numerous studies have been conducted regarding the implementation of HOV lanes and express lanes. Regarding the use of HOV lanes... 

According to Safe Roads USA the purpose of HOV lanes is threefold:  

  1. By shifting from a trend of low occupancy vehicles to high occupancy vehicles, the total number of vehicles on the road are reduced 
  2. By giving high occupancy vehicles priority, more travelers can move at a faster speed 
  3. By adding another lane to the freeway, traffic congestion can be reduced 

However, do HOV lanes actually accomplish those goals? As their research shows the implementation of HOV lanes hasn’t been successful in encouraging carpooling and thus doesn’t reduce the number of cars on the road. Also, they’ve not monitored any added benefits of adding an HOV lane in lieu of adding a non-HOV lane. 

However, the Depart of Transportation suggests the use of the lanes continue to offer shorter commute times of at least 12 minutes during higher traffic times in most metros (although again, that may simply be the benefit of having an extra lane available as opposed to the HOV designation specifically).   

One of the most recent and compressive studies on the topic was a 2022 study published in ScienceDirect entitled: The impact of high-occupancy vehicle lanes on carpooling. The study, which used data from the Waze app, studied the impact of HOV lanes on carpooling. What they found in a test in Israel was that the way HOV lanes are designed, structured and implemented significantly impacts the impact that they can have on reducing traffic congestion on roads. What they found was that round trip HOV lanes increased carpooling but that one-way HOV lanes had a minimal impact, and that minimum two-passenger occupancy requirements were best. 

When you put all of this research together what you end up with is that the benefit of HOV lanes on I-95 in Florida isn’t likely to be much different than if the extra lanes weren’t designated as HOV lanes; but that with more intentional traffic planning, where added convenience and perhaps incentives are provided for more than one person to be in a car, there’s the potential they could be effective.  

As for express lanes...the most recent and comprehensive study of them was just published last November and it just so happened to be of South Florida’s use of them across 57.2 miles, often from converted HOV lanes.  

The study entitled: Assessing the impact of express lanes on traffic safety of freeways concluded this: Express lane deployment significantly improved traffic dynamics and commuter satisfaction. Analysis of the 95-Express lanes revealed increases in weekday traffic by 9.5 % and peak evening traffic by 15.7 %, with express bus route usage rising by 33.5 %. Express lanes, through dynamic tolling, speed up commutes, cut congestion, and fund transport projects, boosting travel efficiency and supporting sustainable transit by reinvesting toll revenues. One area lacking within the study, which it acknowledged, is the impact of the lanes on safety.  

Based upon those findings I’ll not be surprised if there is a move to convert more HOV lanes into express lanes as was mentioned in today’s note. As for my opinion on the matter... I have a couple of thoughts... I’m not a fan of HOV lanes or express lanes. The bottom line is that as long as I-95 is a main thoroughfare for most South Floridians to get to and from work, there’s not an inherent benefit to HOV lanes. It’s not practical or realistic to expect that people will be able to efficiently carpool to get to and from work, etc. I’m especially opposed to express lanes. 

First and foremost, as a matter of principle, I oppose toll roads. We pay taxes for our roads. I don’t believe in paying taxes for roads, but then also having to pay additional fees to be able to efficiently use them. However, aside from my personal beliefs, there are safety concerns. Anytime you add additional layers to commuting you add to the potential confusion of drivers. When that happens, there's an increased safety risk that comes with distracted drivers and those making erratic late movements to either get into certain lanes or out of them. This is reflected in studied data.  

The crash rate in express lanes in South Florida is 13%-15% lower than in other lanes. However, the risk of experiencing a crash in other lanes has risen. Basically, the more lane changes that take place, the higher the accident risk. Because there aren’t lane changes in the express lanes data suggests they’re safer to use, which is true but at the expense of the other lanes which doesn’t seem to be a good solution. 

In a location like South Florida, in particular, where we have high volumes of visitors who aren’t familiar with our roadways, in addition to potential language barriers etc.  


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