Use of Freeway Shoulders for Travel – Guide for Planning, Evaluating, and Designing Part-Time Shoulder Use as a Traffic Management Strategy

Abstract

Part-time shoulder use is the conversion of shoulders to travel lanes during some hours of day as a congestion relief strategy. This strategy is also known as temporary shoulder use or hard shoulder running, and is typically implemented on freeways. Part-time shoulder use is a transportation system management and operations (TSM&O) strategy that uses shoulders to provide additional capacity when it is most needed, and preserves shoulders as refuge areas during the majority of the day. This guide covers planning, design, implementation, and day-to-day operation of shoulder use. It covers a wide variety of design and operational concepts for shoulder use, and describes how a performance based practical design (PBPD) process guides the planning of facilities with shoulder use.