The present invention relates to a management system for a managed vehicle traffic lane, such as a high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane, and more particularly to a management system for a managed vehicle traffic lane that adaptively and selectively extends authorization to use the lane to lower priority vehicle service classes when extension can be done without adversely impacting higher priority vehicle service classes.
Traffic congestion has become a significant impediment to the quality of life in urban areas. Physical road capacity (lane miles) of the nation's roadway system has grown slowly over the last quarter century whereas vehicle miles traveled have grown rapidly over the some period. The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) has indicated that there are insufficient transportation resources to build additional physical road capacity at a rate to keep up with demand. High costs to add physical road capacity and long timelines for deployment have led to anemic growth in physical road capacity in urban areas.
USDOT has promoted carpooling as an alternative to adding road capacity. To promote car pooling, USDOT has incentivized states to create HOV lanes, more commonly known as carpool lanes, whose lawful usage is typically limited to vehicles with multiple occupants. As a result, most states now have networks of HOV lanes in congested areas. In the peak of rush hour conditions, these HOV lanes may at times reach full capacity. However, there is often a significant amount of excess capacity that goes unutilized even during rush hour conditions. Some states have liberalized access to HOV lanes in order to use some of this excess capacity. For example, California has issued stickers to owners of qualifying hybrid vehicles that allow these vehicles to lawfully access HOV lanes even when carrying a single occupant. This has led to greater utilization of HOV lanes; however, in congested areas it has adversely impacted carpoolers.
Additionally, several variants of high occupancy tolling (HOT lone tolling) have been proposed and deployed that allow utilization of excess HOV lane capacity by single occupant vehicles on a charge basis. These systems have generally required installation of a radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in single occupant vehicles and the deployment of periodic gantries along the road with signage that announces current toll rates. RFID readers in the gantries read the RFID tags in passing vehicles and charge the single occupant for use of the HOV lane, monitor current congestion, and dynamically adjust HOV lane toll rates for single occupant vehicles in response to current congestion. One downslide of these systems is that they are costly to deploy. On-board equipment must be installed in the single occupant vehicles. Moreover, if the density of RFID readers is too low, single occupant vehicles can exit the HOV lane in front of the reader and reenter immediately after the reader to avoid a charge. Furthermore, since RFID tags are often not visible to law enforcement officers, regulation of access to HOV lanes by non-paying single occupant vehicles is difficult. More advanced systems that rely on wireless communications systems and global positioning systems (GPS) may eventually address some of the limitations of the RFID based systems. However, these systems are not expected to be broadly deployed for several years.
The present invention, in a basic feature, provides a management system for a managed vehicle traffic lone that adaptively and selectively extends authorization to use the lane to lower priority vehicle service classes when such extension can be done without adversely impacting higher priority vehicle service classes. The management system offers significant quality of life improvement for drivers in congested urban areas by improving throughput of managed and unmanaged lanes and reducing travel times and fuel consumption.
In one aspect of the invention, a management system for a managed vehicle traffic lone comprises a detection system and a control system communicatively coupled with the detection system, wherein the control system dynamically regulates authorization to use the lane by at least one vehicle service class of a plurality of discrete vehicle service classes based on congestion information collected from the lane by the detection system.
In some embodiments, the management system further comprises an authorization announcement system communicatively coupled with the control system, wherein the authorization announcement system provides notification of authorization status of at least one of a plurality of vehicle service classes. In some embodiments, the authorization announcement system comprises at least one of a roadside sign or an on-vehicle display or speaker.
In some embodiments, the management system further comprises a service class announcement system, wherein the service class announcement system provides notification of a service class to which a vehicle belongs. In some embodiments, the service class announcement system comprises at least one of a bumper sticker, window sticker, contactless identification system (e.g. RFID) or wireless communication system.
In some embodiments, the detection system comprises at least one of an inductive loop detection system, a visual detection system, a contactless identification detection system or a wireless probe vehicle-based system.
In some embodiments, the control system extends authorization to use the lane to the at least one vehicle service class in response to an indication in the congestion information that congestion has fallen below a predetermined threshold.
In some embodiments, the control system denies authorization to use the lane to the at least one vehicle service class in response to an indication in the congestion information that congestion has risen above a predetermined threshold.
In some embodiments, the plurality of discrete vehicle service classes is prioritized and the control system dynamically regulates authorization to use the lane to the at least one vehicle service class based on priority.
In some embodiments, the plurality of vehicle services classes comprises at least one of a class for HOV with four or four or more or more occupants, a class for HOV with three or three or more occupants, a class for HOV with two or two or more occupants or a class for qualified single occupant vehicles, such as alternative fuel vehicles, hybrid vehicles or vehicles in which the single occupant has become qualified through a lottery, auction or purchase of a permit.
In another aspect of the invention, a method for managing a managed vehicle traffic lane comprises the steps of collecting congestion information from the lane and dynamically regulating authorization to use the lane by at least one of a plurality of discrete vehicle service classes based on the collected congestion information.
These and other aspects of the invention will be better understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings that are briefly described below.
A detection system 120 continually collects congestion information from managed lane 140 and transmits the congestion information to a control system 110. Detection system 120 in the illustrated embodiment is an inductive loop detection system that includes multiple loop detectors evenly-spaced along managed lane 140 for measuring the flow of traffic in managed lane 140, although in other embodiments of the invention a visual detection system, a contactless identification detection system or a wireless probe vehicle-based system may be deployed.
Control system 110 continually determines which vehicle service classes are presently authorized to use managed lane 140 based on congestion information received from detection system 120. Control system 110 hosts and executes a managed lane control application for determining which vehicle service classes are presently authorized. In some embodiments, control system 110 resides in a network operation center remote from managed lane 140 and manages multiple managed lanes based on congestion information received from multiple detection systems.
Control system 110 transmits authorization information to authorization announcement system 130 in response to a change in the vehicle service classes that are presently authorized to use managed lane 140. For example, in some embodiments control system 110 has a database with different predetermined congestion thresholds for different vehicle service classes that control system 110 uses to determine present authorizations. Higher priority vehicle service classes have higher congestion thresholds. When congestion information received from detection system 120 indicates an increase in congestion on managed lane 140 to a point that congestion surpasses a congestion threshold for a presently authorized vehicle service class, control system 110 notifies authorization announcement system 130 that authorization for that vehicle service class to use managed lane 140 is revoked. Similarly, when congestion information received from detection system 120 indicates a decrease in congestion on managed lane 140 to a point that congestion falls below a congestion threshold for a presently unauthorized vehicle service class, control system 11O notifies authorization announcement system 130 that authorization for that. vehicle service class to use managed lane 140 is restored. If control system 110 determines that congestion on managed lane 140 has not changed to a point where there is a change in the vehicle service classes that are authorized to use managed lane 140, control system 110 does not notify authorization announcement system 130.
Authorization announcement system 130 announces which vehicle service classes are presently authorized to use managed lane 140 in a manner that is conspicuous to drivers of vehicles (e.g. vehicle 160). Turning to
The management system also includes a service class announcement system that provides notification respecting the vehicle service class of vehicles in a manner that is conspicuous to low enforcement or other regulatory entity. Such notification may be used by law enforcement or other regulatory entity to enforce the current vehicle service class authorizations on managed lane 140.
The components of the systems described above may perform their respective operations using various combinations of custom logic, general purpose logic and software.
It will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that the invention can be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential character hereof. The present description is therefore considered in all respects to be illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is indicated by the appended claims, and all changes that come with in the meaning and range of equivalents thereof are intended to be embraced therein.
This application claims priority benefits under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) from U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/921,991, filed Apr. 5, 2007, entitled “SERVICE LEVEL CONGESTION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM”.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60921991 | Apr 2007 | US |