Evaluation of High-Occupancy-Vehicle Lanes on Long Island Expressway

Abstract

New York State's first suburban high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes were opened in May 1994 along a 19.3-km (12-mi) stretch of the Long Island Expressway (LIE), I-495 in western Suffolk County, a major suburb of metropolitan New York City. As with some other HOV facilities across the country, the implementation of HOV lanes on Long Island remains controversial. Nevertheless, HOV lanes continue to have an important role in subsequent plans to manage congestion on the LIE. In May 1991 the New York State Department of Transportation formed the LIE/HOV task force to provide advisory opinions on key HOV issues. The task force, comprising private-sector and government representatives, recommended among its numerous findings that the New York State Department of Transportation establish a comprehensive HOV monitoring program to provide up-to-date information to the media and concerned citizens, as well as help fine-tune operational and marketing elements associated with HOV lane usage and to provide firsthand information and guidance for the subsequent development of HOV lanes on the LIE and in the region. The department, in conjunction with consultant services, instituted a monitoring program that involved surveys and focus groups and periodic compilation of relevant HOV data. The first stage of that ongoing evaluation process is reported. A finding of note is that the HOV lanes have encouraged new ridesharing. Also, both HOV users and nonusers support extending the HOV lanes on the LIE.