HOV Facilities and Use

Northern Virginia boasts one of the country's most successful high occupancy vehicle (HOV) systems. More than 44,000 travelers choose to use one of Northern Virginia’s three HOV freeway corridors[6] for their morning commutes.  HOV lanes have become an integral part of the Washington Metropolitan region’s transit system. The program restricts certain highway lanes to exclusive use by multi-occupant vehicles at peak travel times to encourage carpooling, vanpooling and transit bus ridership. 

The bus-only lanes that opened on the Shirley Highway in 1969 were the first HOV lanes in the country.[7]  NVTC managed a major demonstration of express buses in this corridor. These lanes were then opened up to high occupancy private automobiles to promote more efficient fuel use in 1973. Construction of HOV lanes throughout the country progressed slowly in the 1970s and then began to pick-up in the mid-1980s to early 1990s. 

 High-occupancy vehicle facilities are designed to offer several advantages over conventional freeway lanes and roads. 
They can:

• Increase the average number of persons per motor vehicle using a highway over conventional lanes;

• Preserve the person-moving capacity of a lane as demands for transportation capacity increase; 

• Enhance bus transit operations;

• Support air quality goals;

• Serve a variety of employment centers in urban and suburban areas;

• Provide predictable travel times even during periods of high demand for highway capacity. 

Currently, HOV lanes exist in four Northern Virginia corridors: the 27-mile Shirley Highway (I-395) I-95 corridor from Washington, DC to the south of the Beltway as far as Route 234 near Dumfries in Prince William County; the 27-mile I-66 corridor both inside and outside the Beltway from Rosslyn to Route 234 in Manassas; the 11-mile VA 267 (Dulles Toll Road), which has a concurrent-flow HOV lane between Route 28 near Dulles International Airport and the main toll plaza just west of Route 7; and Route 1 and VA 400 (Washington Street) through Old Town, Alexandria. These HOV lanes play a crucial role in the region’s transportation system. 

The success of Virginia’s HOV system is the result of substantial public and private investment in HOV lanes, park-and-ride lots, transit and car/vanpooling services, rideshare matching services, and popular “slug” opportunities—a form of casual carpooling.