TRIPS: A Trip Rate Information Processing System

Evidence-based decision-making is vital for creating sustainable cities. In transportation engineering and planning, land-use-based trip and parking generation data inform significant decisions such as rezoning of land, infrastructure contribution schemes and designs/upgrades of public spaces that ultimately shape our environment.

The current Australian practice faces numerous challenges due to the:

1. reliance on datasets that are either outdated or insufficient in sample size;
2. current reporting formats not allowing the users to easily understand how trip rates vary in response to other relevant contextual variables;
3. lack of data and consideration of other road users beyond vehicles, such as pedestrians, cyclists and micromobility, shared vehicle and public transport users; and
4. absence of an established way to monitor and validate the ambitious sustainable mode share targets set forth in Green Travel Plans (GTPs) for various large-scale developments.

This project aims to address the above issues through the development of a centralised trip/parking generation database that can also facilitate the design, implementation, and validation of GTPs. The scope of this project spans both the system and its users.

Since the key to the long-term success of this tool is its ability to self-sustain itself, in addition to the development of the database, this project will also engage with the potential users to establish an agreed and accepted procedure through which this data can be obtained and uploaded to the system on a regular basis.

Participants

• Department of Transport and Main Roads (Queensland)
• University of Sydney / Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies

Project background

The following observations are noted about current Australian practice in matters mentioned above. 

1. Centralised evidence base

Australia does not have a centralised evidence base for land use-based trip generation surveys. While these surveys are carried out for various developments at the planning assessment stage as a part of traffic impact studies, they are not collected and curated in a centralised system. This represents a missed opportunity, particularly considering the time and money spent on these surveys.

2. Ease of analyses

Most of the data sources currently used by practitioners and assessment officers to identify suitable trip and parking rates for various land uses are either outdated or are lacking in sample size.

Exacerbating this problem, the current reporting formats do not allow the users to analyse and understand how the broader socio-economic context of a given development influences its trip/parking generation potential. For example, the users should understand how the trip/parking rates correlate with and vary in response to variables like residential density, car ownership rates, walkability, and the distance from public transport routes.

Reliance on outdated datasets with limited sample sizes and the lack of regard to contextual factors can significantly misguide planning – for instance, overprovision of road capacities or parking can lead to induced demands for more private vehicle travel, which is counterintuitive to sustainable behavioural changes we are seeking.

3. Precinct-level data

Strategic planning requires precinct-level data on trip and parking generation. Currently, while this data is collected for various projects, they are not centralised in a repository.

Collection and centralisation of data in relation to the precinct level trip generation will enable the practitioners to identify how different land use mixes interact with each other to generate trips by different user groups and more importantly to determine the ‘ideal mixes’ of land uses for maximising trip containment in peak hour periods to avoid overdesigning roads and parking lots.

This data, when available across time, can also be used to understand transport demand elasticities which would enable the practitioners to measure and compare the impact of various interventions on facilitating mode shift away from private vehicles. Such evidence-based assessments would facilitate the development of more accurate and effective strategic business cases and return on investment analysis for large projects.

4. Data for mobility-as-a-whole approach

The currently available data sources mainly focus on vehicle trips and exclude other key user groups such as pedestrians, cyclists, and the users of shared vehicles, micromobility and public transport services. Focus on the single-user class of private vehicles further bolsters the car-centric view planners are trying to move away from and misses catering for more sustainable travel modes through a mobility-as-a-whole approach. As such, a fundamental paradigm change is needed that acknowledges the need to consistently account for multimodal trip generation by developments.

While various large-scale developments across Australia are required to provide GTPs outlining single occupant vehicle travel reduction measures and ambitious future sustainable travel mode share targets, these are not monitored or validated after the completion of the development. Long-term monitoring and validation of GTPs can effectively shift the responsibility and accountability for achieving sustainable outcomes to the development level – which is currently lacking.

This project seeks to address the above issues by developing a centralised trip/parking survey database that can be used across Australia. The database is referred to as TRIPS (Trip Rate Information Processing System) and comprises three subsystems – namely the:

• Database
• Travel planning tool; and
• Analytical platform

The proposed database will create a tangible synergy between the fields of land use planning and transportation thus enabling more holistic planning to achieve sustainable outcomes.

The standardisation of data collection and storage procedures achieved through this project will enable users to access high-quality data. It will provide valuable insights to transportation engineers, planners, policymakers as well as researchers, through a comprehensive dataset on the travel behaviour of all road users in different land use contexts.

More importantly, by facilitating the GTP monitoring and validation process, it will pave the way towards the realisation of future sustainable mode share targets set forth by individual developments.

Project objectives

This project seeks to develop a centralised database for curating land use and precinct-based trip and parking generation surveys, to facilitate the transition of vehicle-centric transportation planning towards a ‘mobility as a whole’ approach.

The objectives of this project are threefold:

1. The development of a database and a suitable user interface structure to facilitate the storage and convenient extraction of land use and precinct-based trip and parking generation survey data with the focus extending beyond private vehicle trips into all user classes including pedestrians, cyclists, and shared vehicle, micromobility and public transport users.
2. The design of a Green Travel Plan (GTP) monitoring and validation framework that can rely on the capabilities of the above database, including the development of standards to ensure uniformity, quality and readiness of the data collected.
3. The development of a suitable analytical platform that would enable the users of this database to combine, analyse, and visualise the survey data, and explore their relationships and interdependencies with socioeconomic and geographic variables.

Please note …

This page will be a living record of this project. As it matures, hits milestones, etc., we’ll continue to add information, links, images, interviews and more. Watch this space!