Dr. Janusz Supernak received his MS and Ph.D. from the Technical University of Warsaw, Poland. In 1979 he was invited to SUNY Buffalo as visiting Assistant Professor. In 1981 he moved to Drexel University and in 1984 to San Diego State University. Full professor since 1988, he has been Chairman of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at SDSU for the last 10 years. He currently serves on the national Executive Council of the CEE Department Heads. Dr. Supernak is author of over 100 publications, conference proceeding and research reports in the areas of travel behavior, demand analysis, traffic engineering, impact studies, and transportation economics. He recently completed $1.2 million study of the Value Pricing Project on I-15 in San Diego, a four-year federal demonstration, leading a team of professors, consultants and students. For the last 10 years he has been Faculty Advisor to the nationally ranked Student Chapter of the ASCE at SDSU.

Dr. Supernak was Project Director on a comprehensive assessment of the Value Pricing project on I-15 in San Diego. This was a 3-year-long demonstration sponsored by FHWA to study various impacts of this project. The project converted the previously underutilized HOV lanes into HOT lanes allowing solo drivers to use the 8-mile long facility for a fee. The evaluation involved 12 separate studies, among them Traffic Study and Attitudinal Panel Study. Two versions of this project were studied: the ExpressPass phase when the program subscribers paid a monthly fee for unlimited use of the facility; and the FasTrak phase when the program participants paid variable, electronically collected fees for each use of the facility. The fee structure was dynamically adjusted by the traffic conditions on the Express Lanes to protect the state-mandated LOS C there.

The San Diego demonstration proved successful on several fronts. Program subscribers were able to avoid congestion on the main lanes when their on-time arrival was particularly important. They appreciated the increased reliability of travel time as well as the actual travel time savings. The Value Pricing project was operationally and organizationally successful, and was able to generate enough money to fund a new bus service on I-15. The FasTrak version of the project was able to redistribute some traffic from the middle of the peak to its shoulders; the ExpressPass version was not. Traffic relief on the main lanes was small and short-lived. Equity problems did not surface. The media and the general public were supportive of the project.

Bethany Allinder, Program Coordinator | bethall@rci.rutgers.edu | 848-445-3112

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