Trip generation at Virginia agritourism land uses.

Details

• Creators:
  Ohlms, Peter B.
• Corporate Creators:
  Virginia Transportation Research Council (VTRC)
• Corporate Contributors:
  Virginia. Dept. of Transportation ; United States. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Commercial buildings
  • Farms
  • Land use
  • Tourism
  • Traffic volume
  • Transportation planning
  • Trip generation
  • Winery
  • wineries
  • agritourism
  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  FHWA/VTRC 16-R18 ; VTRC 16-R18
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States ; Virginia
• Edition:
  Final report
• Corporate Publisher:
  Virginia Transportation Research Council (VTRC)
• Abstract:
  When new agritourism land uses are initially proposed, a lack of data on how many vehicle trips these uses tend to create ; (known as trip generation) means that there is limited guidance available for transportation planners and engineers to make ; appropriate and sound recommendations regarding entrances and other traffic improvements. Agritourism land uses can include ; farm wineries, breweries, distilleries, orchards allowing visitors to pick fruits and vegetables, and farm stands and markets. This ; study reviewed existing information about agritourism trip generation rates and conducted data collection and analysis with regard ; to these rates at five winery and cidery sites in Virginia. In Virginia, localities have the ability, albeit limited, to regulate special ; events held at agritourism sites, so this study looked at non-event trip volumes. ; Engineers and transportation planners typically use trip generation data from the Institute of Transportation Engineers’ Trip ; Generation Manual to determine entrance categories and to recommend street improvements and strategies for safety or capacity. ; The manual includes trip rates for several uses that could be considered related but that do not exactly represent the range or ; character of agritourism uses, with the possible exception of breweries serving a full menu approximating the manual’s definition ; of “quality restaurant.” The data reported in the manual for most of these agritourism-related uses had a large degree of ; variability. Recent studies of trip generation at wineries, all from California, were also reviewed. ; Data collected for the five Virginia sites had high variability, but certain independent variables had moderately high ; correlations with trips: (1) number of employees, (2) population within a 60-minute drive, (3) households within a 60-minute ; drive, and (4) square footage of tasting room. Although based on a small sample size, the results suggest that established retail ; wineries/cideries are likely to exceed the Virginia Department of Transportation’s 50-trips-per-day maximum threshold for a “low ; volume commercial entrance,” falling instead into the “moderate volume commercial entrance” or the “commercial entrance” ; category. ; Based on the findings of this study, it appears that VDOT’s practice of assuming low trip volumes for agritourism land uses ; may result in entrances that are undersized for the amount of traffic they carry. The “moderate volume commercial entrance” ; category may be appropriate for agritourism land uses in most cases. In addition, weekday peak hour volumes for the agritourism ; land use sites studied did not occur during the weekday peak hours of adjacent streets. Promising site-based variables for Virginia ; wineries include square footage of a tasting room and number of employees at peak season, and when no site-based variables are ; available other than location, Census-derived variables can provide some information. Additional research could clarify the ; findings of this study. ; Recommendations for VDOT’s Office of Land Use include (1) providing guidance to VDOT’s transportation and land use ; directors indicating that retail-focused wineries can be assumed to generate well more than 50 vehicle trips per day at peak season ; and (2) investigating possible adjustments to the traffic volume thresholds for the “moderate volume commercial entrance” ; category.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  104117
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/30871/dot_30871_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.72 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:e83b57da7a9f88eb90b2faf350df9ec4409137b4a7e5df8732ed6e7d9300ecd9