State Legislative Issues for Managed Lanes in Texas

The managed lane concept is currently being considered on major free way projects in Texas cities. The term managed lanes encompasses a variety of facility types, including high-occupancy vehicle lanes, high-occupancy toll lanes, single-occupancy vehicle express lanes, special-use lanes, and truck lanes. The premise of the managed lanes concept is to increase freeway efficiency and provide free-flow operations for certain freeway users by packaging various operational and design strategies. The strategies deployed offer the flexibility to be adjusted to match changing corridor and regional goals. Research undertaken in Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) research project Operating Freeways with Managed Lanes, which assessed state legislative needs necessary for Texas to legally and successfully implement the various types of managed lane facilities across the state, is discussed. Texas statutes may require changes in various areas to allow the implementation of managed lanes, including defining managed lanes as an operational concept in Texas, authorizing entities to develop managed lane facilities for congestion mitigation purposes, allowing entities operational flexibility with managed lane facilities, authorizing entities to develop exclusive lane facilities for congestion mitigation purposes, authorizing TxDOT to establish lane restrictions for congestion mitigation purposes, removing the time-of-day limitation on current municipal authorization for lane restrictions, and making the unlawful violation of any managed lane facility in Texas punishable by fine.