161 Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 2470, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, Washington, D.C., 2014, pp. 161–168. DOI: 10.3141/2470-17 The I-85 express lanes in the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan region are among the newest high-occupancy-toll (HOT) facilities in the United States. This paper examines travelers’ value of time and their willingness to pay for the I-85 express lanes, compares travel times and travel time reliability in the general purpose and HOT lanes, and discusses the benefits users gain from the facility. The study examined 9 months of toll and travel time data for drivers who traversed the entire length of the express lane corridor during the morning and afternoon peak periods. Median values of travel time savings were $36/h in the southbound morn- ing peak period and $26/h in the northbound afternoon peak period. The express lanes exhibited reliability benefits relative to the general-purpose lanes, but this study does not quantify the value of those benefits because of the lack of stated-preference data. The value that HOT lane users attributed to their time saved exceeded the time value obtained by using the average wage rate in the region. These results for the value of travel time were found to be similar to those for HOT lane implementations in other locations. Congestion pricing continues to gain footholds in the United States in the form of high-occupancy-toll (HOT) lanes. The I-85 express lanes facility in Atlanta, Georgia, a 16-mi HOT implementation, began operating on October 1, 2011. Before opening, the facility was a standard high-occupancy-vehicle lane for at least two occupants (HOV2 lane) that routinely became congested. The corridor now consists of one HOT lane in each direction (north- and southbound) that allows registered vehicles with three or more occupants (HOV3) to ride for free. Excess capacity resulting from the conversion of HOV2 lane to HOT3 lane is sold to non-HOT3 users willing to pay a toll for facility use. The lanes are dynamically priced to control demand and maintain an average speed of 45 mph. As more HOT lanes are developed, both in the Atlanta metro- politan region and across the country, an understanding of the way users respond to the lanes and the benefits they derive is important to that development. Such an understanding can inform future imple- mentations, increasing their efficiency and the welfare gains of the customers. In that spirit, this paper uses data from the I-85 express lanes to investigate users’ value of travel time savings (VTTS) and willingness-to-pay distributions. This avenue of investigation is common to HOT lanes, as the results can be used to help design pricing algorithms that satisfy throughput and revenue goals. The results may be useful for other cities that are designing HOT lanes and for the extensions of the system that are under consideration in Atlanta. In addition to comparing overall performance of HOT and general- purpose (GP) lanes, this paper examines willingness to pay on the basis of frequency of facility use. The travel time and reliability mea- sures are compared for infrequent users; frequent users, who use the express lanes between two and three times a week; and very frequent users, who use the HOT lanes at least three times a week. The express lanes are also contrasted with the leftmost GP lane in an attempt to gen- erate the most conservative estimates of benefits of the I-85 express lanes. Finally, the study compares the total value of time saved by HOT users with the value of time calculated from the average wage rate in the Atlanta metropolitan region. BACKGROUND On October 1, 2011, the City of Atlanta opened its first HOT lanes on the radial I-85. The Georgia Department of Transportation’s HOV-to-HOT project converted almost 16 mi of HOV2 carpool lanes to HOT lanes, one in each direction. The HOT lane corridor begins at the junction with I-285, which forms a perimeter around Atlanta, and continues north into the surrounding suburbs. The State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA), the operating agency of Georgia, sets toll levels on the basis of traffic volumes and average speeds of traffic on the corridor. SRTA’s goal is to achieve a consistent speed of 45 mph in the express lanes and sets toll prices to manage demand for use of the HOT lane. The lanes have multiple entry and exit points, and the tolls are paid via electronic vehicle transponders (Peach Passes). Prices are adjusted at 5-min intervals for the various entry-and-exit trip combinations. Vehicles with occupancies of three or more travel for free in the HOT lanes but must also carry Peach Pass transponders. The I-85 express lanes stretch 15.5 mi from Chamblee Tucker Road (south of I-285) to both Old Peachtree Road and GA-316 to the north. Lane access is provided by five dashed-line ingress– egress sections in both the south- and northbound directions. The lanes are equipped with automatic vehicle identifier scanners to read the Peach Pass transponders required for lane users. Thirty-five HOT gantries equipped with these transponder readers sit above the express lanes. In addition, 13 scanners (seven northbound and six southbound) sit above the GP lanes to detect transponders on GP lanes. The lanes are also flanked by 10 enforcement cameras that capture license plates of vehicles without Peach Passes. Ten toll rate signs line the corridor and display the current toll rate for different trip lengths. Value of Travel Time Savings Evidence from I-85 Express Lanes in Atlanta, Georgia Adnan Sheikh, Angshuman Guin, and Randall Guensler School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 790 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332-0355. Corresponding author: A. Sheikh, asheikh7@gatech.edu.