Lane Occupancy Charges

Occupancy of travel lanes during construction and road maintenance are ordinary activities frequently undertaken to maintain the well-being of road infrastructure. When these activities take place impact traffic flow and generate delays on the users. Thus, it imposes costs on the users on heavily traveled routes due to traffic slowdowns or even shutdowns. At rush-hour these direct and indirect costs come to a peak. Construction and road maintenance closures are scheduled events. They can take place at times that the negative impacts would be minimized. This study focused on the appropriate guidelines for lane occupancy charges that would eventually minimize the disutility of traffic lane closure. The project research team examined heavily traveled locations in the NJ region, with the cooperation of NJ DOT engineers, to examine traffic and construction patterns to be used in the analysis and definition of the general occupancy charge guidelines.