HOV Survey Captures Corridor Viewpoints

A telephone survey of 600 citizens conducted this summer shows that most Austinites are familiar with High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes and believe they can work well, at least in some instances. TxDOT commissioned the survey to assess current community knowledge about High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes because they are being considered as one option for increasing mobility on local corridors, including IH 35, Loop 1 (MoPac) and US 183.

An HOV lane is reserved for vehicles carrying two or more people. Users frequently include carpools, vanpools and buses. On HOV lanes, vehicles can frequently travel faster than those using adjacent lanes, especially when traffic is heavy. Therefore, the freeway can move more people in fewer vehicles.

To conduct the survey, 300 names were randomly drawn from a list of telephone households located in central Austin and 300 were drawn from a list of telephone households in outlying areas. The survey also asked respondents about traffic conditions on IH 35.

Here are some of the major findings that emerged from the study:

• Peak traffic on MoPac, US 183 and IH 35 is seen as a serious problem, but IH 35 peak traffic is viewed by far as the most serious. There also appears to be more pent-up demand for IH 35.

• When asked in an open-ended format about the best solutions to traffic on the roads, the most common response for MoPac and US 183 is public transportation and for IH 35, the most common response is alternate routes. This suggests that many people have been paying attention to the public discussion on transportation issues.

• A slight majority of respondents believes HOV lanes would result in substantial improvement to the traffic problems on MoPac, US 183 and IH 35.

• Almost three-fourths of area residents support HOV lanes to some degree on MoPac, US 183 and IH 35. More than 40 percent of the respondents strongly support HOV lanes on these roads. Those living in outlying areas are more likely to express strong support than are those living in interior Austin, but even in the latter group, a large majority supports HOV lanes.

• People responded positively to a number of statements in support of HOV lanes. The statement that HOV lanes can help control area air pollution is viewed as particularly powerful.

• About a quarter of those surveyed believe they would be very likely to use HOV lanes.

• When asked what would make them more likely to use HOV lanes, the most common responses are to help find the right people to carpool with and create a perceived difference in travel time/speed.

A survey of 600 people has a sample error of plus or minus four percent.

Contact persons for the TxDOT Austin District HOV program are Diana Farrack, E.I.T. of the Austin District Advanced Project Development Office at (512) 832-7069.  Contacts for the Austin area HOT projects are David Kopp, P.E. of the Texas Turnpike Authority Division of TxDOT at (512) 936-0981.