2002-08-12 Regular Meeting, Public Hearing and Workshop Meeting

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e e PROJECT SUMMARY BRIEFING 1-10 East Freeway Truck Lane Restriction Demonstration Project Working cooperatiyely with the City of Houston, the Houston District of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has implemented a demonstration project along an eight mile section of the 1-10 East Freeway between Waco and Uyalde streets. The project restricts trucks (defined as vehicles with three or more axles) from using the inside (left) lane of the freeway between the hours of 6:00 A.M. and 8:00 P.M. on Mondays through Fridays; however, the lane may be used for the purpose of passing another yehicle. A violation of the lane restriction is punishable by a fine of up to $200. TxDOT provided funding for a study by the Texas Transportation Institute (Tn) to monitor and evaluate this demonstration project. This prqject summary briefing presents summarized results of this eyaluation. Comoliance The compliance of the lane restriction was measured by monitoring the yehicle traffic in the inside lane at three locations within the limits of the demonstration project. The studies were completed prior to implementation of the restriction (September 2000), and at intervals of one-month (November 2000), three-months (January 2001), and six- months (April 2001). The compliance rate is determined by comparing the volume of trucks observed in the inside lane prior to the restriction with that observed for each of the monitoring periods. The observed compliance rates are identified below: Location Compliance Rate of Restricted Lane 1-10 EB @Kress 1-10 WB @Kress 1-10 EB @ Wayside 1-10 WB @ Wayside 1-10 EB @ Federal 1-10 WB @Federal Nov 2000 34% 35% 85% 90% 77% 85% Jan 2001 61% 59% 91% 91% 71% 84% April 2001 69% 71% 87% 90% A yerage 55% 55% 88% 90% 74% 85% Enforcement Enforcement of the lane restriction has been an important component of the success of the demonstration project. Through May 2001, a total of852 citations were issued to yio1ators. On the average, 20% have been issued to local drivers (those listing a home address in the immediate Houston area), 39% to drivers residing throughout Texas, and the remaining 41 % to drivers residing in other states. These percentages have continued to be consistent throughout the entire study period. This continues to demonstrate the positive impact the local media has had on getting the information out to the public and truck drivers in the Houston area. Vehicle Crashes