The Dallas Freeway/HOV System Planning Study: Year 2015 (1994-7)

The Dallas Freeway/High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) System Planning Study is a joint project in cooperation with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG), and the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI). The mission of the study is to provide an intermediate planning step between the macroscopic-level planning performed by TxDOT's Regional Planning Office and the NCTCOG and the detailed corridor design analyses performed by the district office of TxDOT. The intent of this effort is to assist in the development of an area-wide freeway/HOV system that recognizes implementation constraints (right-of-way and construction costs), and provides reasonable peak-hour operating conditions on all freeway facilities, while incorporating the long-range plans developed by TxDOT, DART, and NCTCOG. The proposed system is a set of recommendations to be considered and evaluated as part of the development of the Mobility 2010 Plan Update, the long-range transportation plan for the Dallas area.|The recommended system in the Dallas System Planning Study was developed using a methodology that focuses on peak-hour passenger travel demand in the year 2015 (derived from the year 2010 24-hour volume assignment provided by NCTCOG) for the freeways in Dallas and surrounding counties. The goal of the Dallas System Planning Study has been to find the lowest public cost alternative in each corridor, for a given volume of peak-hour person trips. This framework views travel delay, construction, and operation of roadways as costs to the public. It also recognizes that some motorists will change their mode of travel when given the opportunity to avoid congestion resulting in more transit and carpool use (rail passenger volumes were held constant as provided by NCTCOG).|The Dallas System Planning Study methodology uses an iterative process to examine congestion and the consequent shift in mode so that these two factors are consistent for an alternative. The proposed system balances money saved in construction against money lost in delay to find the optimum combination of mixed-flow, HOV, and express lanes necessary to move the demand.