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In the last 30 years, determined travelers have developed a new method of travel that offers the benefits of traveling on an

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This paper addresses priced managed lane corridors, on which travelers may choose to pay a toll to travel on the managed lanes (MLs) to realize generally faster, more reliable travel than on the adjacent, toll-free general purpose lanes (GPLs). These lanes exist in many cities across the United States and are becoming more common as transportation agencies look for innovative ways to increase capacity and regulate demand for their roadways. Commonly, demand for these lanes is modeled assuming travelers choose between the MLs and GPLs primarily based on the cost and time savings of the MLs. Although the traffic and revenue forecasts generated by these models have generally succeeded in estimating revenue, newly available empirical data from Katy Freeway and North Tarrant Express shows these models fail to capture how individual drivers make decisions. Most travelers on those freeways were not choosing—they always used the same lane regardless of travel time and toll. Travelers that used both sets of lanes often made choices that appeared counter-intuitive based on travel time savings and toll rate. This research provides a preliminary investigation into this issue, which calls into question all prior ML travel-behavior research.

This research examined the willingness of travelers to pay for travel time savings (TTS) on the I-394 MnPASS express lanes in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the I-15 express lanes in San Diego, California. The findings from both facilities indicate that many travelers are willing to pay a toll for a small TTS. The revealed preference values of time for the I-394 paying customers averaged $73/h in the morning and $116/h in the afternoon. Travelers on the I-15 express lanes received slightly higher TTS than on the I-394 and typically had a lower willingness to pay. Their revealed preference values of time averaged $49/h in the morning and $54/h in the afternoon. On the basis of the magnitude of these values, it is likely that travelers are paying for more than just TTS, possibly travel time reliability also. This finding means that these lanes likely have added value to travelers beyond time savings. The variability of the dynamic toll prices on the I-394 MnPASS express lanes in Minnesota and the I-15 express lanes in San Diego was also examined. Toll rates during the morning and afternoon peak hours varied considerably, with tolls ranging from $0.50 to $8.00. Conversely, off-peak times showed little to no variation. These trends were similar for different days of the week, and even from year to year. These trends were common across both I-394 and I-15 express lanes, although more variation was found on I-15. Tolls varied little during off-peak periods.