Title

California Smart Growth Trip Generation Rates Study

Time

1:40 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Location

1605 Tilia, Room 1103, West Village

Abstract

This presentation provides an overview of a project to develop a method that practicing transportation engineers and planners can use to estimate vehicle trip generation rates at “smart growth” land use development projects in California. A method is needed for transportation impact analysis (TIA) necessary for adequate compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and other state, federal, and local laws which require the identification, analysis, and mitigation of transportation-related impacts of proposed land use projects. Currently, practitioners typically obtain trip generation rates published by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE). The data for these rates were collected primarily at suburban sites without significant transit, bicycle, or pedestrian facilities. However, recent studies suggest that ITE trip rates often significantly over-estimate the number of vehicle trips for land use projects located in dense, urban areas near transit and within walking distance of other land uses. ITE guidelines state that their trip generation rates should not be used for land use projects in such locations. Subsequently, there is currently no accepted method or tool available in the U.S. to estimate the number of trips generated at smart growth sites, which makes it difficult to estimate the transportation-related benefits of such projects. With ongoing input from a technical advisory panel, the research team collected trip generation data at 30 smart growth land uses in California, which were used along with data from other studies, to develop a model embedded in a spreadsheet tool that can be used to adjust available trip generation rates at “smart growth” land use projects in California.

Biographical Sketch

Dr. Kevan Shafizadeh is an associate professor and the chair of the Department of Civil Engineering at California State University, Sacramento (“Sacramento State”), where he has headed the transportation area since 2004. Dr. Shafizadeh teaches courses in transportation engineering, transportation planning, statistics, and computer applications, and he conducts a variety of applied transportation research projects. He also serves as an independent consultant to local engineering firms and a subject matter expert to both public and private entities. Dr. Shafizadeh is an ITS alumnus, earning Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Davis. He completed his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is registered Professional Civil Engineer (PE), and a certified Professional Transportation Planner (PTP) and Professional Traffic Operations Engineer (PTOE).