Modeling The Effects of High Occupancy Toll Lane implementation Policy on Users` Trip Choice Behavior (Case Study: Chamran Highway)

The high-occupancy lanes are one of the urban traffic management strategies which attract many developing countries in recent years. High-occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes have been implemented in the United States and Europe, but never in developing countries. Thus, such a study is necessary in Iran. In general, the most trips are single-occupancy vehicle (SOV), which increases the number of vehicles in the streets. In this regard, for reducing SOV, especially in high-occupancy lanes, and increasing the capacity, HOT was used in developing countries. The main purpose of the present study was modeling and evaluating the factors influencing the mode choice in the presence of HOT lanes. Many studies evaluated the use of high-occupancy lanes, while in the present study the factor of entrance and departure to / from the field of study and calculating the saved time in different routes and converting it to monetary value to pay tolls were used for the first time. Due to the lack of these facilities in Iran, the data were collected using the stated preference method. Therefore, 1000 observations were investigated and a binary logit model was used to analyze the data. The results indicate that by increasing price (due to increasing saved time), individual willingness decreased for using high occupancy lanes. In addition, nearly 26% of drivers were willing to use HOT lanes when was free of charge, while the percentage of selecting HOT is almost zero when the price is high. Furthermore, in 180000 Rials, the selection percentage reached below 5%. Additionally, the results of the model showed that based on the entrance and departure to / from Chamran Highway, individuals desire to use HOT lanes. In addition, when individuals live in the shortest distance from the field of study, there is a 31% desire to use HOT lanes, while increasing to 25 km, tendency reaches almost zero percent. It is also worth noting that women were more inclined to use HOT lanes.