Traffic generated by office and retail developments in Singapore

This paper presents the development of models to estimate traffic generated by office and retail (shopping centre) developments in Singapore, based on surveys conducted at 27 representative sites. Of particular interest are the effects of the Singapore road pricing scheme and accessibility to public transport on traffic generated by these developments. Two different approaches were used to estimate vehicle trips generated by developments: weighted average rate and regression analysis. The study found that the mean trip rate for office sites located within the area charged under road pricing was lower than the rate for sites situated outside; however, the difference was not statistically significant. The mean trip rate for retail sites within the charged area during the weekday evening hour was significantly lower than the rate outside. For both office and retail developments there were strong linear relationships between traffic generated and floor area (either gross or leasable floor area). The inclusion of the variable ‘distance to the nearest Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station’ to represent accessibility to MRT services proved to be significant in explaining traffic generated for office developments but not for retail. Trip rates for office and retail developments were found to be considerably lower in Singapore than the UK and US rates.