The Effect of Implementing Traffic Separators on Travel Time of Express Lanes, Case Study: I-95 Express Lane, Miami, USA

Travel time is a fundamental measurement in transportation engineering. Accurate travel time prediction is also crucial to the development of intelligent transportation systems and advanced traveler information systems. With the increased deployment of Express Lanes (EL), the transportation industry has been able to better understand the advantages, disadvantages, and impacts of lane separation techniques in order to better manage expresslanes. In this study the data from detectors which are located at I-95 Northbound (NB) at Golden Glade interchange were assessed in order to see whether the changes before andafter installing traffic barriers are significant. SPSS was used to obtain speed characteristics in selected detectors and T-Test was accomplished to see whether the changes are significant. In all statistical analysis, the 95% confidence interval was considered. It wasexpected that channelizing the express lane, as it eliminates weaving movements, would lead to speed increment, however, the results showed that the average speed decreased significantly.

Keywords:

Travel Time , Travel Speed , Express Lanes , General Purpose Lanes , Traffic Separators