Top Ten Developments Needing a Traffic Study

A
lot of developers ask me if they need a traffic study for their specific development.  For starters –
if a government agency says you need one, you’ll need one.
They aren’t going to approve your project or your access
without it.  A lot of jurisdictions have their own policies, so check with the jurisdiction you are working in first.  A general starting point though is the Institute of Transportation
Engineers (aka ITE) recommendation of studying developments generating more than 100 trips during a peak hour.

(Jargon Alert! Traffic engineers define a vehicle coming in or out as a trip.
So a car getting gas is two trips for the gas station – one trip entering and
one trip exiting during the same rush hour.  At an office, you have most
cars entering in the morning rush hour as one trip and exiting in the afternoon
rush hour as the second trip.  Traffic engineers also like to call the
morning rush hour the a.m. peak hour and the evening rush hour the
p.m. peak hour.)

Top Ten Developments Triggering ITE’s Thresholds

1. Fast Food Restaurant with a Drive Through:  3,000 square feet of gross floor area
2. Shopping Center/Strip Center:  6,000 square feet of gross leasable area
3. Gas Station with a Convenience Store:  7 Vehicle Pumps
4. General Office Building:  67,000 square feet of gross floor area
5. Single Family Home Subdivision:  90 Units
6. Apartment Building:  150 Units
7. Owned Condominium/Townhouse Development:  190 Units
8. Drive through Bank:  2,000 square feet of gross floor area
9. Manufacturing Plant:  144,000 square feet of gross floor area
10. Light Industrial/Warehousing:  185,000 square feet of gross floor area