Accessibility of site is a critical success factor.
Improving site’s accessibility dramatically increases access to cash and to population.
Accessibility
is the main “product” of a transport system, which refers to peoples’ ability
to reach desired goods, services, activities and destinations. The quality of
accessibility has tremendous direct and indirect impacts. Consider that the primary
trade area for a retail centre entails a 20-minute car-based trip. If
congestion delay consists 5–10 minutes of the total trip, what is typical for
urban conditions, reduction of travel time by one minute increases the primary
trade area by 14–21%.
Developers,
state highway agencies, municipalities and the general public have common as
well as diverse interests regarding site transportation plans.
Developer’s
Interests
- Will the adjacent roadway
system adequately support accessibility to the proposed development?
- What changes are required to
the adjacent roadway system to improve accessibility? Are they worth the investment?
- What are the estimates of the
volume of traffic the development can be expected to generate on the
opening date of the proposed development and full development date?
- What changes might occur in the
future roadway system that would impact the development negatively?
Positively?
- Will the access and internal
site circulation adequately accommodate the amount and type of traffic to
make development successful?
- Are the number of parking
spaces adequate and are they conveniently located for customers and
employees?
- Can the site access and
circulation design be modified in response to changing conditions on the
abutting roadway network?
- If applicable, are public
transit stops located and designed to provide convenient access to
buildings and minimize pedestrian-vehicle conflicts?
Investor’s
Interests
- Does the site accessibility
have deficiencies that will jeopardize the long-term financial viability
of the project?
- What changes might occur in
abutting and nearby property development that would impact site
accessibility negatively?
Tenant’s
Interests
- Can customers easily and
conveniently enter and leave the site?
Local
Government Interests
- What safety and operational
impacts will the development have on the public roadway system?
- Can delivery and service
vehicles maneuver safely and efficiently through the driveway connections
with the public roadway system?
- Is emergency vehicle
circulation acceptable?
- Are appropriate pedestrian
walkways and bicycle facilities provided?
- Will the location and design of
access drives cause safety or operational problems on the abutting street
system?
- Does on-site traffic control
give preference to traffic entering the site?
Inadequate
attention to the stakeholders’ above mentioned interests can result in:
- Poor accessibility;
- On-site congestion and/ or congestion
on the public street system;
- High accident experience;
- The development does not
achieve financial objectives; AND
- Limited flexibility to adjust
the design or operation to changed conditions.
Transportation
Planning and Accessibility
The quality
of accessibility is a key success factor for commercial, institutional, residential,
and recreational land use. For instance, shopping mall image can be improved by
capturing key dimensions: accessibility, atmosphere, price, and assortment. Shopping
malls that are easily accessible to shoppers are perceived more favorably and
are likely to be patronized more than malls that are less accessible.
Improving
accessibility helps to achieve access to cash and to population. Since
accessibility is the ultimate goal of most transportation activity, we base transport
planning on accessibility.
Optimal planning requires
comprehensive accessibility analysis. We apply a variety of methods to evaluate
all accessibility factors, including macro, meso and micro simulation of
transportation network. . Our ability to evaluate accessibility provides a
better understanding of site accessibility and helps identify truly optimal solutions
to transport problems. We provide effective planning which requires creativity
and judgment to understand and evaluate the myriad factors affecting
accessibility. We evaluate accessibility not only based on travel speeds (such
as average traffic speeds and congestion delay), but also based on convenience
and comfort factors, which are very important to the user. We use Level-of-service
(LOS) ratings, which grade service quality from A (best) to F (worst), to
evaluate travel conditions, for example, to identify problems and possible improvements.
Our
experience indicates that there are many ways to improve accessibility than
recognized in conventional planning. For example, many transport problems are
best solved by improving the convenience and comfort of alternative modes,
providing better user information, improving connections among modes, and increasing
land use accessibility.