An Evaluation on Priority Lanes

Along with the economic development, cities are increasingly congested in China. In order to eliminate peak-hour congestion, many cities establish priority lanes such as bus lanes and Olympic lanes. Although priority lanes could help Local Authorities gain its short-term management objectives, at the same time, it would greatly infringe on the legitimate rights of other vehicles and waste the scarce road resources, which is rigorously proved by mathematical models in this paper. In the long run, priority lanes would make social conflicts more intensified, and therefore highly undesirable. On the contrary, the social system engineering, combined with High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes and High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes, is the right way to alleviate overcrowding and build a Low-Carbon harmonious society.