Trip Generation Analysis
Trip Generation Analysis
Trip Generation Analysis
RE: Trip Generation Analysis - Fountain Valley Starbucks at 17580 Newhope Street
JA1267
BACKGROUND
The Planning Commission of the City of Fountain Valley issued a Conditional Use Permit
(Number 1486) approving the operation of a combined 1,614 s.f. Starbucks Coffee shop and a
1,494 square foot training center at 17580 Newhope Street. As part of the approval process, city
staff proposed a trip fee of $68,912. Staff derived the trip fee from the number of cash
transactions at two Starbucks coffee shops in Fountain Valley and applying a trip fee credit for
the existing PC Warehouse, which currently occupies the site.
Katz, Okitsu and Associates was retained to review the trip generation study and subsequent trip
fee prepared by the City of Fountain Valley on behalf of the Starbucks Coffee Corporation.
APPROACH
In order to estimate the impacts of the proposed project, the number of net new trips to the
project site, which could be expected to be generated during a typical weekday, must be
estimated. The estimates were prepared for the average weekday (i.e. daily trips), which is
consistent with the methodology the City of Fountain Valley used to calculate Transportation
Impact Fees.
A review of the data contained in the Institute of Transportation Engineers, Trip Generation
Manual, 6th edition shows no data for coffee shops such as a Starbucks. In order to adequately
assess the full impacts of the project, a trip generation study was conducted by Katz, Okitsu &
Associates at two “peer facilities” to determine the relative trip generation rates for Starbucks
Coffee sites that are similar to the one proposed at 17580 Newhope Street. The two facilities
were chosen in consultation with the Starbucks Corporation and are located at 16051 Brookhurst
Street (Brrokhurst/Edinger) and at 18523 Brookhurst Street (Brookhurst/Ellis). One data
element collected was the number of people entering and exiting the site during morning (7AM
to 9 AM), midday (11 AM to 1PM) and evening (4 PM to 6 PM) periods. In addition, Katz,
Okitsu & Associates surveyed of customers entering the store and asked the following questions:
It should be noted that no two Starbucks are identical in terms of size and features. The two
coffee stores chosen for the trip generation survey were done so because they are the closest to
the new site in terms of amenities, intended customer market, and overall operations, including
being sited in commercial centers with other major retailers.
The basic premise behind the data contained in the Trip Generation Manual is that it represents
single use, freestanding trip information. However, when a proposed project is located in a
development of mixed-use or multi-use sites, such as the one proposed at 17580 Newhope
Street, there are opportunities for extended interaction among the individual uses within the
multi-use site. This means that the total generation of vehicle trips entering and exiting the site
may actually be less than just a simple sum of the respective rates of each individual land use.
Furthermore, given the retail nature of coffee shops, many trips associated with these types of
facilities are considered “pass-by” or “diverted” trips, meaning that drivers will typically not
make a special trip to patronize a coffee shop. Rather, drivers will stop at facilities along their
daily route or patronize a retail facility that is adjacent to another retail or other use for which
they are already destined (e.g., retail store, gas station, mini-mart, bookstore, etc.). This is
especially true of coffee shops associated with a national chain or name brand (e.g., Starbucks,
Peets, Seattle’s Best, etc.). As shown in Table 1, based upon the trip generation data collected as
part of this effort, it is estimated that between 40 and 70 percent of all trips generated by the
two Starbucks coffee shops surveyed are “pass-by” trips.
A key characteristic of multi-use developments is that many of the trips are linked to the
individual uses on the site and not on the adjacent roadway system. This means that in a mixed-
use facility, many of the patrons will visit more than one land use on each trip, such as to shop,
or go to the bank, for example. These types of trips are known as internal trips or “site capture”.
An internal capture rate can be defined for these trips and expressed as a percentage reduction
in the trip generation rate for the individual uses to account for trips internal to the site. Thus,
in the context of the 17580 Newhope Street site, there will be trips that include visits to several
of the components of the site, such as Costco, Hughes Federal Credit Union, Home Furnishings
and other businesses in the center. Assuming each trip visited one land use on the project would
lead to double counting of the number of actual vehicle. It is common in this type of analysis to
take allowance for “project capture” when calculating project trip generation rates
FINDINGS
Table 1 summarizes the data collected as part of the trip generation study. Note that each new
trip is equal to two new trip ends as the visitor to Starbucks ends one trip when they arrive at
Starbucks and begins another trip when leaving Starbucks. Daily trip rates were calculated by
creating a relationship between the data collected during the study periods and applying those
findings against daily customer data for each location provided by Starbucks.
Additional Data:
Total customer count on day of survey 746 people served
Average vehicle occupancy (AVO) 1.16 people per vehicle
Number of people surveyed 330 people in 6 hours
Size of building 1,865 square feet
Daily Trip Rate (trip ends for Store #5679) 688 per 1,000 square feet
Additional Data:
Total customer count on day of survey 712 people served
Average vehicle occupancy (AVO) 1.26 people per vehicle
Number of people surveyed 339 people in 6 hours
Size of building 1,615 square feet
Daily Trip Rate (trip ends Store #5614) 698 per 1,000 square
feet
This data was then used to determine the trip generation rate of the proposed Starbucks Coffee
shop at 17580 Newhope Street. Since both of the surveyed sites are similar in size and number
of customers served, the data from each was averaged to create a single trip generation rate.
This was done by taking the weighted average for each trip category (new, pass-by and linked)
for each time period, and then averaging the two stores together to determine an average trip
rate. This rate was then applied to the proposed Newhope Street store to determine the average
daily trip rate.
In order to conservatively estimate the trip generation for the new Starbucks Coffee shop, the
linked trips for the morning hours were not included in the final analysis. As mentioned, the
survey of the “peer facilities” was conducted, in part, to quantify the relation between the
proposed Starbucks Coffee shop and mixed-uses near the project site. The proposed Starbucks
Coffee shop at 17580 Newhope Street will be sited in a commercial center with other major
retailers. Many of these major retailers will be closed in the early morning hours. Accordingly,
there will be less opportunity for linked trips between the project and neighboring land uses.
The linked trips during the morning hours ranged from 9% to 12% at the surveyed locations.
In addition to the traffic generated by patrons of the Starbucks Coffee shop, there is also new
traffic added by employees of the coffee shop and by deliveries to the coffee shop. For the
typical Starbucks Retail Store operations there are three to four employees per shift with two
shifts per day. In addition, each Starbucks location generally receives one delivery per day. The
traffic added by these components is also considered in the calculation of the daily trip
generation for the proposed coffee shop. The employees of the coffee shop are expected to add
more than two vehicle trips (arriving and departing) to the surrounding street system. To
account for employees leaving the site for lunch or to perform other tasks, a trip rate of 3.62
vehicle trips per employee was used in the analysis. This rate is based on the Institute of
Transportation Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation Manual, average daily rate for Single Tenant
Office Building, Land Use 715.
The proposed Starbucks Coffee shop at 17580 Newhope Street will also include an associated
1,494 square foot training center. This training facility will be used in conjunction with the
Starbucks corporate offices located at 17700 Newhope Street. The training center will be
occupied with two to three full-time employees five days a week. In addition, eight to ten
trainees will use the training room for two to three time per week. The trainees will first park
and meet at the corporate offices, which are within walking distance of the proposed training
center, and will then walk or vanpool to the training center. The only traffic added by the
trainees of the training center will be the van trips.
The estimated daily trip generation for the proposed Starbucks Coffee shop is summarized in
Table 2.
Employees 11 Persons 40 40 0 0 40
Deliveries 1 -- 2 2 0 0 2
Trainees* 2 Vans 2 2 0 0 2
CONCLUSIONS
Based on an analysis of the trip generation survey data, the preponderance of trips to the two
Starbucks Coffee shops are pass-by or linked trips as opposed to “new” trips. These findings are
consistent with data collected at other Starbucks Coffee shops in the Seattle, Washington area as
well as for other fast-food type of commercial uses. Applying the observed pass-by and linked
trip rates, as well as credits for the existing PC Warehouse land use, in a manner consistent with
the procedures contained in the ITE Trip Generation Manual, yields a net new daily trip rate of
386 vehicle trips.
Applying the City of Fountain Valley’s Transportation Impact Fee rate of $59.00/trip yields
equates to a total trip fee of $22,774.