This report documents a study conducted to assess and test promising technologies for HOV lane enforcement. After a qualitative assessment of video, automatic vehicle identification, and infrared machine vision technologies, the study was suspended because no preferred infrared technology was available for testing. The study was resumed when a vendor demonstrated promising video technology. The highoccupancy vehicle enforcement and review (HOVER) system was then developed for an operational test on the East R.L. Thornton (I-30) contraflow HOV lane in Dallas, Texas. The results of the operational test indicated that the HOVER system, in its current state, could support a program that mails HOV information to suspected violators (similar to the HERO program). The study's limited budget prevented several improvements that could improve the capabilities of the HOVER system. With several enhancements to the system (e.g., improved license plate recognition and "whitelist" license plate database, etc.), the HOVER system could be used to perform enforcement screening. Significant enhancements to the system (e.g., high-quality video cameras and additional camera views, improved video signal transmission, improved license plate capture and recognition, etc.) could enable its use for HOV ticket-by-mail programs, although enabling legislation does not currently exist in Texas. The author recommends implementation of these enhancements and further testing to determine future system potential.

Can still-photos be used for automated enforcement of HOV lane violations? Can it consistently and adequately record the actual number of occupants in moving vehicles? Can individuals who personally observe moving vehicles from a roadside position consistently and accurately detect the actual number of occupants? This report has the answers.

The overall objective of this study is to evaluate the feasibility, effectiveness, legality, and public acceptance aspects of automated enforcement on red light running and high occupancy vehicle (HOV) occupancy requirement using video cameras in Nevada. This objective was accomplished by conducting a literature review of previous studies and lessons learned in other states, conducting public opinion polls and agency survey, assessing the violation rate in HOV lanes, analyzing accident data related to red light running in Nevada's urban areas, and reviewing legal and public acceptance issues in other states. Since automated red-light running enforcement has proven to be reliable and supportive by most of Nevada's public surveyed, pilot installation and test of red-light running camera systems are recommended at selected intersections where high-violation and high-crash rates exist. Considering the inherent difficulty of photo-HOV occupancy enforcement technology and the relatively low support of 43% from Nevada's residents, video camera systems are recommended as supplemental countermeasures for reducing HOV occupancy violations. The results of the study could be used as the basis for pursuing legislative changes to allow the automated red-light running enforcement and photo-HOV occupancy enforcement in Nevada.

This synthesis will be of interest to state and local highway agency administrative and executive officers, enforcement agency personnel, attorneys, traffic engineers, and others concerned with managing and enforcing traffic laws at all levels of government. It will also be of interest to manufacturers and marketers of automated speed enforcement (ASE) technology. The synthesis describes the requirements, applications, effectiveness, and issues related to the use of ASE technology. This report of the Transportation Research Board describes the various types of ASE technology as applied in several localities, including descriptions of operational requirements and performance characteristics of these technologies. The synthesis also discusses how citations are processed, and examines the legal and acceptability issues related to ASE technology and public views on these actions. The various technologies on the market at the time of preparation of this synthesis are also described. It should be noted that, as with any application of public surveillance technology, officials are well advised to exercise proper cautions when employing such enforcement procedures.

High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) facilities in Virginia have proven to be effective in enhancing mobility. This success, along with the availability of electronic toll collection technology, has led the Commonwealth to expand the HOV system and pursue the implementation of high-occupancy toll (HOT) facilities in the state. Although these facilities hold promise to help address the growing demand for travel in Virginia, a significant challenge in achieving their potential lies in the ability to enforce occupancy requirements in a manner that has minimal impact on the operation of the facilities. This has proven to be a challenge for HOV facilities and will be an even more complex undertaking on HOT facilities. The purpose of this study was to examine occupancy enforcement on HOV and HOT facilities. This examination focused on three areas: assessing the impact of existing manual violation enforcement techniques on HOV violation rates; exploring the feasibility of using new technologies/techniques to improve the effectiveness of violation enforcement; and assessing the impact of violation enforcement techniques on the operations of HOV/HOT lanes. The results of the research indicate that current saturation enforcement techniques are not effective in reducing violation rates. However, no proven technologies are currently available that offer the potential to automate enforcement of occupancy restrictions. Finally, a simulation methodology was developed that may be used to estimate the operations' impacts on current and future enforcement techniques and technologies. The report offers a number of recommendations to address the challenges of HOV/HOT occupancy enforcement in Virginia: (1) the current practice of sporadic saturation enforcement should be discontinued in exchange for regular, continuous enforcement; (2) the HOV Enforcement Task Force should look critically at current HOV policies to identify and recommend specific changes to reduce the likelihood of citations being dismissed in adjudication; and (3) the methodology developed in this research should be used to evaluate new enforcement techniques and technologies before they are implemented.