Managed Lanes (MLs) are designated lanes in which the flow of traffic is managed by limiting vehicle eligibility, restricting facility access, or dynamic price tolls. In expressways, MLs play a key role in improving traffic mobility, efficiency, and safety, in addition to generating revenue for transportation agencies. MLs have emerged as an effective dynamic traffic management strategy. In recent years, several major cities in the United States have introduced managed lane systems such as ETLs (Expressway Toll Lanes), HOT (High-Occupancy Toll) lanes, or HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes. Previous research has indicated that there is an association between the installation of the MLs and the improvement of the traffic operation and safety in expressways.
This study focuses on the design of the weaving segments near the access zones. The access zones usually form weaving segments since on-ramp vehicles want to enter the MLs through the ingress and off-ramp vehicles want to exit MLs through the egress. These on- and off-ramp vehicles will weave with the mainline traffic on GPLs. Figure 1 shows the weaving segments where L1 is the ingress weaving segment length and L2 is the length of the egress weaving segment.