Print this pageManaged Lanes: A Primer
Mark P. Rossow, PhD, PE Retired
Course Outline
This one-hour online course discusses what are managed lanes, how they relate to the principle of active management of freeway facilities, why managed lanes should be considered, how value pricing and traditional lane management strategies can be used, and how life-cycle considerations come into play. Four specific implementations of managed lanes in the U.S. are described.
This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.
Learning Objective
This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:
- Defining 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; and
- Managed lane case studies.
Intended Audience
This course is intended for transportation engineers and planners.
Benefit to Attendees
A person completing this course will be sufficiently familiar with managed-lane issues to be able to converse knowledgeably with specialists in the field.
Course Introduction
The total number of vehicle miles traveled in the United States has increased more than 70 percent in the last 20 years. At the same time, highway capacity has only grown by 0.3 percent. Departments of transportation, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and other agencies involved in the planning process are simply unable to build enough capacity to keep up with growing demand.
Course Content
This course is based on the U.S. Federal Highway Administration document, “Managed Lanes A Primer,” August 2008.
Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you still experience any difficulty in downloading or opening this file, you may need to close some applications or reboot your computer to free up some memory.
Course Summary
The managed lane approach is the evolution of traditional lane management strategies, with the primary difference being the idea of active management over the life of the facility. It is a way to address the issue of growing congestion in a proactive manner within the constraints of limited resources. Successful projects will build upon the best practices and lessons learned in early projects. As lane management techniques become more complex, many new issues will need to be addressed. Careful and coordinated planning and design, along with community support, will allow projects to proceed from an idea on the drawing board to an effective facility on the ground.
Related Links
For additional technical information related to this subject, please visit the following websites or web pages:
http://www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freewaymgmt/index.htm
Quiz
Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.
DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.
