Top 10 Land Uses in Traffic Impact Studies

Out of curiosity, we looked through the traffic impact studies we’ve prepared over the last three years to figure out what types of developments we most often analyze.  We found that we analyzed 50 different types of land uses from January 2011 through July 2014.  Some of those land uses were only in a single study during that three year period, while land uses such as the general office were in more than fifteen different studies.

Here’s the rate for how often we prepare traffic forecasts for each of our Top 10 Land Uses:

1. General Office (ITE Land Use Code 710) 9.7%
2. Apartment (220) 8.6%
3. Single Family Homes (210) 7.6%
4. Shopping Center (820) 5.9%
5. Specialty Commercial/Retail (826) 5.4%
6. High Turnover Sit-Down Restaurant (932) 5.4%
7. Residential Condominium/Townhomes (230) 4.9%
8. Daycare Center (565) 3.2%
9. Bank with Drive Through (912) 3.2%
10. Service Station with Market & Carwash (946) 3.2%

So this means about one in ten studies we prepare will have an office building in it, while one in thirty will have a bank in it.

This data gives a little snapshot into what kind of development is happening in our region, but it’s a comparatively small sample and I wouldn’t read too much into it.

The reason we went through this exercise is that we’re thinking we need to start collecting our own trip generation data to make sure we’re forecasting traffic as accurately as possible.  The ITE dataset is the best thing we have in North America, but a lot of that data was collected before “the great recession” and we don’t know how much of it was even collected in the Midwest. This list helps us figure out where we should start.