Use of INTEGRATION Model to Study High-Occupancy Vehicle Facilities

Vinton W. Bacon, Jr., David J. Lovell, Adolf D. May, and Michel Van Aerde

Transportation Research Record 1446, Transportation Research Board, pp. 8-13

ABSTRACT

A study was undertaken to assess the potential use of the INTEGRATION computer model to simulate high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) facilities and to perform some preliminary investigations with the model. It was found that the model is capable of simulating a wide range of HOV facility types. Of those types tested, none was found that the model was not able to reasonably simulate. However, a few problems were encountered in using the model. First, the model works using units of vehicles, not passengers. It was found that this problem could be rectified by simple modification of some of the input and output files. Second, it is possible to indirectly model lanes whose status changes with time by creating an incident on a link that is to be closed for certain periods. Overall, the model seemed to accurately simulate HOV facilities. A number of runs were made on a simple straight-pipe network and a network that represents a portion of the Santa Monica freeway corridor in Los Angeles to determine if the results derived from INTEGRATION conform to what would be expected in the field. Initial analysis of the results from various sensitivity studies indicated that the model was accurately modeling the facilities in question. Becausee of the preliminary nature of the research, a number of recommendations for future research and some potential modifications to the model are given.