Analysis of the Effects of an HOV Lane on a German Freeway – A Simulation Study With PTV VISSIM

The objective of our research is to assess the effects of a high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane
on a German federal freeway. The research findings provide guidance for practitioners for the
development of a microscopic traffic flow model containing temporary hard shoulder running and
an HOV lane in PTV Vissim.
We developed a microscopic traffic flow model of a section of a German freeway. The
driving behavior was calibrated with measured traffic data of the existing dynamic line control
system. We used this model to simulate 16 scenarios of an HOV lane (four HOV lane designs
combined with four vehicle occupancies).
The results showed the desired effects of an HOV lane can only be achieved to a small
extent. The reduction of general purpose lane capacity is too high when introducing an HOV lane.
Furthermore, the introduction of an HOV lane results in additional lane changes in the upstream
area from the HOV lane in the simulation. The reduced capacity in combination with increased
lane changes leads to congestion, both for HOVs and SOVs. Only on the section of the HOV lane
itself, HOVs are faster than SOVs. Downstream the traffic situation remains the same as in the
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baseline scenario. Therefore, the potential for travel time savings for HOVs compared to SOVs is
low.
One of four HOV lane designs offers 4 minutes travel time savings for HOVs over SOVs. It
is questionable whether a minor time gain is enough to change people’s mobility behavior towards
carpooling.