Simulating Truck Lane Management Approaches to Improve Efficiency and Safety of Highways in Knoxville, Tennessee

Increased globalization has caused large increases in truck traffic on the nation’s interstate system, with much additional growth expected in the coming years. This growth has elevated interest in developing new strategies to address rising levels of truck traffic, especially in dense and congested urban areas. This thesis focuses on the evaluation of several alternative lane management configurations as they compare to the current lane configuration in search of the best fit for operational improvement. This task was performed in two ways – survey and simulation. A survey of 500 long-haul truck drivers was administered in Knoxville, Tennessee, at the crossroads of major north-south and east-west interstate highways. The dataset was evenly divided between owner-operators and truck-company employed drivers. The survey suggested the alternative truck lane management configurations and most of the respondents supported moving truck lanes to the inside travel lanes to avoid merging and lane changing cars, either through traditional truck lanes restrictions or truck only lanes. The alternative lane configurations and the current lane configuration were simulated in VISSIM. Parameters such as speed, travel time, delay, and lane change were used for evaluating the configurations during simulation. A statistical test was applied to the results of the simulations. Each configuration yielded significantly different results in most cases and a few insignificant changes in other cases. One of the configurations – the optional truck only lane configuration, stood out as the best fit for operational improvements by offering high speeds, shorter travel times, smaller delay times and greater delay cost savings, and increased highway safety. Such configuration could potentially address the challenges faced by increasing truck traffic in congested urban areas.