Trip Generation Rates for Urban Infill Land Uses in California

Current Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) trip generation rates are not sufficient to guide the approval of proposed developments in urban infill areas because the sources of the rates do not reflect variations in density, land use mix, site design and the multimodal transportation systems of larger metropolitan areas. This paper describes a study that was conducted to develop a methodology for identifying and describing urban infill locations and for collecting trip generation rate data in urban infill areas of California. The study also sought to establish a database of trip generation rates for common infill land use categories in urban areas of California. Trip generation data were generated for several infill land uses, including residential, office, retail, restaurants and hotels. A total of 26 sites were sampled, with intercept surveys conducted during the morning and afternoon peak periods. Data collection efforts were suspended earlier than expected due to budget cutbacks. Because of this, the data collected is not statistically significant. However, the data that were obtained do provide some insight into the differences in travel patterns between urban infill and conventional suburban sites, and can be used to establish the beginning of an urban infill trip generation database. In general, trip generation rates collected in this study were generally lower than ITE trip generation rates.