Safety Performance of High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Facilities: Evaluation of HOV Lane Configurations in California

Collision data from High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) facilities with two different types of access, continuous and limited, are examined in this paper. The findings show that HOV facilities with limited access offer no safety advantages over those with a continuous access. Compared with continuous access HOV lanes, a higher percentage of collisions was concentrated on limited access HOV lanes. Limited access HOV lanes also had higher collision rates. Findings from investigating the relationship between collision rates in HOV lanes with respect to shoulder width, length of access, and the proximity of access to its neighboring ramps are also documented. These findings provide enhanced understanding about the effects of geometric factors on the collision rates in HOV lanes.