An analysis (of traffic or anything else)is only as good as its data: Part 2

Heather is lead researcher on Cherenzia's traffic analysis.  Here is her post on trip generation.

       Thanks to all involved in our Traffic Count!  Whether you were at the station distributing brochures, sharing information, counting movements or passing through as one of the many vehicles and pedestrians - I thank you greatly.  I have compiled the data and provided an overview, as well as some supporting details as to why we felt compelled to spend part of our weekend at an intersection of our beloved loop.  From 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., there were 116 vehicle movements and 32 pedestrian movements.  The following hour resulted in 230 vehicle movements and 16 pedestrian movements.

       What does all this mean?  Our neighborhood streets are already congested but to add the volume of attached housing may result in dangerous circumstances.  Unlike other areas with this high volume of movements, our pedestrians have no sidewalks for safety.

        Our neighborhood is on a peninsula with two main means of egress.  Spring of 2010 showed us our vulnerability if required to evacuate.  Parts of Mechanic Street, River Road and Mary Hall were all under water.  The structural integrity of the bridge on Greenhaven Road, over Wequetequock Cove, was in question and closed due to a partial collapse.

       Developing this site with attached housing/condos increases the possible number of households/units with a lower cost to build per square feet. That's great news for the developer's profit but not for us. If the land was developed with single family homes it would decrease the quantity of additional movements by decreasing the quantity of households/units.

        It was mentioned in The Day’s July 7 article, that a similar Cherenzia development (76-units called Fountain Crest) in Westerly, RI, did not dramatically increase traffic.  This part of the article inspired me to use that project as a tangible example of what is proposed for my neighborhood - minus the great deal of blasting - of course.

        It was a random Tuesday afternoon during the timeframe of 3:05 to 3:35.  During that short amount of time, I observed the actual traffic count of Fountain Crest condos totaling 8 exits and 13 entries.  I compared that data to the Table No. 1 Trip Generation Summary in the application for the proposed development on Greenhaven and Mary Hall roads.  It was listed as 230 EXIT and 230 ENTER for a full weekday.  230 / 48 (half hour segments in a full weekday) = 4.7 per half hour intervals.

       With the observed count at Fountain Crest of 8 EXIT and 13 ENTER, maybe the figures below would be more accurate expectation in a random weekday if this project is approved…8 x 48 (half hour segments in a day) = 384 EXIT and 13 x 48 (half hour segments in a day) = 624 ENTER

       In all fairness, this is just 1/48^th of the 230 weekday total traffic count of movements.  But also please keep in mind that this is not a peak timeframe of the random weekday.  It is in the middle of the work week; a Tuesday.  That is considerably more traffic on our loop for any weekday.