Abstract:
This paper discusses the background and results of the conversion of the Katy Freeway High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane into a High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lane. Nicknamed "QuickRide," the Katy HOT lane implementation offers real-world experience into this emerging area of interest in mobility planning. In addition to a description of the conditions that led to the development of the HOT lane experiment, the paper discusses issues such as mode and time shift among QuickRide and freeway users, frequency of use by QuickRide participants and reasons given by freeway users for not enrolling in QuickRide. A few of the principal challenges facing pricing and HOT lanes are identified.