The objective of this research is to investigate the operational effectiveness of the Dallas area HOV lanes. Issues such as person movement, carpool formation, travel time savings, violation rates, safety, and project cost effectiveness are addressed. By understanding the operational performance and issues of both buffer-separated (concurrent flow) HOV lanes and barrier-separated (movable barrier contraflow or fixed barrier reversible flow) HOV lanes, recommendations can be made on suggested HOV lane implementation guidelines for the Dallas area.

The objective of this research is to investigate the operational effectiveness of the Dallas area HOV lanes. Issues such as person movement, carpool formation, travel time savings, violation rates, safety, and project cost effectiveness are addressed. By understanding the operational performance and issues of both concurrent flow (buffer-separated) HOV lanes and contraflow (barrier-separated) HOV lanes, recommendations can be made on suggested HOV lane policies, including the type of permanent HOV lanes to be implemented in the Dallas area.

The analysis of the IH-30 corridor with a moveable barrier-separated contraflow HOV lane did not indicate a change in injury crash occurrence. The IH-35E North and IH-635 corridors with buffer-separated, concurrent flow HOV lanes did show a change in crash occurrence with an increase in injury crash rates.