Phantom trips: Overestimating the traffic impacts of new development

The Trip Generation Manual is the standard reference for assessing the impacts of new development on traffic congestion and the environment in the United States. However, a comparison to household surveys suggests that the Trip Generation Manual overestimates trips by 55 percent—likely because its d...

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Main Author: Adam Millard-Ball
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing 2015-03-01
Series:Journal of Transport and Land Use
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.jtlu.org/index.php/jtlu/article/view/384
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author Adam Millard-Ball
author_facet Adam Millard-Ball
author_sort Adam Millard-Ball
collection DOAJ
description The Trip Generation Manual is the standard reference for assessing the impacts of new development on traffic congestion and the environment in the United States. However, a comparison to household surveys suggests that the Trip Generation Manual overestimates trips by 55 percent—likely because its data represent a biased sample of development in the U.S. Moreover, the data in the Trip Generation Manual are ill suited to many analyses of traffic impacts, development impact fees, and greenhouse gas emissions because they do not account for substitution effects. Most trips “generated” by new developments are not new, but instead involve households reshuffling trips from other destinations. These twin problems—theoretical and practical—are likely to lead to the construction of excessive roadway infrastructure and to the overestimation of the congestion, fiscal, and environmental impacts of new development.
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spelling doaj-art-e88b69dbbd724d2f96e97cac0e9ebec22025-08-20T03:06:10ZengUniversity of Minnesota Libraries PublishingJournal of Transport and Land Use1938-78492015-03-018110.5198/jtlu.2015.384Phantom trips: Overestimating the traffic impacts of new developmentAdam Millard-Ball0University of California, Santa CruzThe Trip Generation Manual is the standard reference for assessing the impacts of new development on traffic congestion and the environment in the United States. However, a comparison to household surveys suggests that the Trip Generation Manual overestimates trips by 55 percent—likely because its data represent a biased sample of development in the U.S. Moreover, the data in the Trip Generation Manual are ill suited to many analyses of traffic impacts, development impact fees, and greenhouse gas emissions because they do not account for substitution effects. Most trips “generated” by new developments are not new, but instead involve households reshuffling trips from other destinations. These twin problems—theoretical and practical—are likely to lead to the construction of excessive roadway infrastructure and to the overestimation of the congestion, fiscal, and environmental impacts of new development.https://www.jtlu.org/index.php/jtlu/article/view/384traffic impact analysistrip generation
spellingShingle Adam Millard-Ball
Phantom trips: Overestimating the traffic impacts of new development
Journal of Transport and Land Use
traffic impact analysis
trip generation
title Phantom trips: Overestimating the traffic impacts of new development
title_full Phantom trips: Overestimating the traffic impacts of new development
title_fullStr Phantom trips: Overestimating the traffic impacts of new development
title_full_unstemmed Phantom trips: Overestimating the traffic impacts of new development
title_short Phantom trips: Overestimating the traffic impacts of new development
title_sort phantom trips overestimating the traffic impacts of new development
topic traffic impact analysis
trip generation
url https://www.jtlu.org/index.php/jtlu/article/view/384
work_keys_str_mv AT adammillardball phantomtripsoverestimatingthetrafficimpactsofnewdevelopment