Link EditorWelcome to the HOV Clearinghouse
Welcome to the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Clearinghouse Website. You will find a wealth of information about HOV systems and the most recent activities. This website is a central clearinghouse that houses a comprehensive and interactive database of existing and planned HOV facilities in North America and American territories, broken out by Freeway and Arterial classification, and a repository of significant and relevant documents and products related to HOV facilities. The HOV Clearinghouse is also intended to facilitate the sharing of information among practitioners and the dissemination of innovative tools, processes, problem solving efforts and capacity building efforts to assist HOV practitioners in performing their duties and achieving the goals and objectives of their respective HOV facilities. The development of the HOV Clearinghouse is sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the HOV Pooled-Fund Study.
HOV facilities serve to increase the total number of people moved through a congested corridor by offering two kinds of travel incentives: a substantial savings in travel time, along with a reliable and predictable travel time. Because HOV lanes carry vehicles with a higher number of occupants, they move significantly more people during congested periods, even if the number of vehicles that use the HOV lane is lower than on the adjoining general purpose lanes. In general, carpoolers, vanpoolers, and bus patrons are the primary beneficiaries of HOV lanes by allowing them to move through congestion.
HOV Lanes have been in existence for over 30 years. As a congestion management strategy, HOV lanes have been widely applied in the U.S. to preserve mobility, maintain trip reliability, and improve the person moving capability within a corridor or metropolitan area. Currently, there are over 130 HOV facilities in operation on freeways within 27 metropolitan areas in the U.S. These HOV facilities include over 1,000 route miles. There are HOV lanes on arterials as well, especially those related to bus-only applications. There are also additional facilities in operation on freeways and arterials in Canada.
