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61 <br /> Addressing Traffic Concerns <br /> During our November Neighborhood Information Meeting, some concern was expressed <br /> concerning the vehicle traffic that our proposed plan may generate. <br /> Counting Trips-Per-Day <br /> Some of the concern may be due to the brief traffic data note on our initial site plans. These <br /> overstated the trips-per-day by nearly a factor of two.' Although the traffic data note has been <br /> corrected in the latest site plans, the old figures continue to reappear (for example, on p. 72 and <br /> 85 of the agenda packet sent to the Planning Board in late December). <br /> Some of the concern is likely due to the way that trips-per-day are counted. One trip to the <br /> grocery store gets counted as two vehicle trips since there is both the outbound trip for the <br /> groceries and a return trip with the groceries. Dropping your kid off at school and then later <br /> picking her up generates four trips. Trips-per-day quickly therefore accumulate. A classroom of <br /> twenty students is likely to generate 80 trips-per-day even before counting teachers, staff, and <br /> admin. <br /> At our current maximum capacity, we generate approximately 64 trips per weekday.2 If, in our <br /> most ambitious plans for this location, we manage to eventually increase the number of tree <br /> crews from four to twelve, we would add another 100 trips-per-day. Even this number, however, <br /> likely overestimates the trips-per-day, as it assumes that we are working with current levels of <br /> vehicle inefficiency, created by the logistical problem of handling wood waste. Since this is a <br /> problem that our new lot is intended to resolve, we anticipate that only two trucks will be needed <br /> per crew, reducing the number of trips per day by 24. More likely, we would be generating no <br /> more than 140 trips-per-day at maximum capacity. If, moreover, we limit ourselves to hiring no <br /> more than 10 to 15 new employees (as the Planning Department notes mentions), we would be <br /> generating far fewer than 140 trips-per-day. <br /> Comparing Trips-Per-Day <br /> One way to gain a perspective on trips-per-day counts is through comparison. The nearby <br /> Emerson Waldorf School is said to enroll approximately 260 students. If we don't count any <br /> traffic created by teachers, aids, administrators, and facility staff, but we assume that each <br /> ' 1 am at fault for not looking at the traffic data site plan note more carefully. When I was originally <br /> considering this question of traffic, I was most mindful of the 800 trips-per-day threshold that triggers a <br /> need for a Traffic Impact Analysis (UDO section 6.17). Knowing that whatever we did we would be far <br /> below this threshold, I did not take due care in counting how little traffic we actually would end up <br /> generating. <br /> 2 Presently we have about eighteen employees who, on a week-day, arrive and leave from our company <br /> headquarters on a regular basis (other employees, such as consultants and some office staff typically <br /> work from home). Of these, only fourteen of these employees create two, instead of one, to-and-fro trips <br /> to our company headquarters per day. If we count arrival and departures as separate trips, we get a <br /> grand total of 64 trips-per-day. <br /> 1 <br />