City of Greater Sudbury Transportation Study Report

4.4. Trip Generation
Trip generation involves the development of trip production and attraction equations or rates
that will produce trip production and trip attraction to and from each traffic zone.
Trip generation rates have been developed based on the household survey for the p.m. peak
period (3:30-5:29). The p.m. peak period was selected instead of the a.m. peak period in
order to better determine the impact of special generators such as major shopping centers
and institutions like hospitals, colleges and the University. Trip generation equations for both
productions and attractions were tested for three areas and for three trip purposes. The
areas consisted of the former City of Sudbury, the remaining areas outside the former City of
Sudbury, and the special generators. The trip purposes are Home Based Work (HBW) which
includes any trip with an origin or destination to or from home and work, Home Based Other
(HBO) which includes any non-work trip having an origin or destination to or from home, and
Non Home Based (NHB) which has neither an origin nor destination to or from home. The
relevant variables used for each trip purpose are as follows:
HBW – employment
HBO - population and employment
NHB - employment
In the development of the traffic zone system, an attempt was made to ensure that the major
special generators had their own traffic zones to simplify the development of trip generation
equations.
4.4.1. Trip Generation for Home Based Work Trips
For HBW trips, regression analysis was performed to determine the trip generation rates for
trips having an origin in the former City of Sudbury and trip attraction rates were determined
for trips having a destination in the former City of Sudbury. The variables used in this
analysis included population and employment. Employment was considered the most
important factor in terms of developing trip production and population was the most important
factor for determining trip attraction. The final HBW trip generation and attraction rates for
the former City of Sudbury are as follows:
HBW Trip Productions (within the former City of Sudbury) = 0.5425 * employment
(R-square = 0.734)
HBW Trip Attractions (within the former City of Sudbury) = 0.2532 * population
(R square = 0.723)
Results of the regression analysis for HBW trips within the former City of Sudbury are plotted
in Figure 4.4.1 for productions and Figure 4.4.2 for attractions. The R-square value for both
the generation and attraction equations are reasonable.
CITY OF GREATER SUDBURY
OFFICIAL PLAN BACKGROUND REPORT
September 2005 Page 43