Operational and Safety Analysis of Signage and Pavement Marking Treatments in Puerto Rico Dynamic Toll Lane Using a Driving Simulator

The Puerto Rico Dynamic Toll Lane (DTL) is a managed lane system for light traffic that combines congestion pricing, reversible lanes and a Bus Rapid Transit system within the median of freeway PR-22. This research aims to evaluate if modified signage and the addition of in-lane pavement markings could help improve operational and safety aspects of the DTL using the UPRM driving simulator. The performance measures used to evaluate driving behavior were vehicle average position, average speed and acceleration noise, which has been used as a surrogate measure to evaluate safety. A total of four virtual scenarios were studied using time of day and traffic flow as independent variables to evaluate two configurations: existing conditions (Configuration 1) and proposed conditions using modified signs and pavement marking treatments (Configuration 2). However, results of the study indicates that there were no significant differences between configurations for the performance measurements evaluated.