Trip generation question - veteran's aid facility

[ACtrafficengr]

An organization wants to convert a shuttered 177-bed county nursing home into an shelter and assistance program for homeless veterans. It seems like a good idea to me, since they'll be using a vacant asset for a good cause. The problem is the access goes through a historic site.

Does anyone have any suggestions for an applicable generation rate? Assisted living facility, maybe?

 

[civilman72]

I can't imagine that many homeless people drive vehicles. Is this a place that is accessible by public transit or pedestrian access?

Nursing Home (620) from the ITE TGM seems to be most pertinent, specifically stating the users do not generally drive vehicles and that most trip generation is from employees, guests and deliveries.

 

[ACtrafficengr]

The preliminary traffic evaluation claims 61 daily trips for 175 DU. Similar uses result in 6 to 11 times that. I'm going to ask for better justifications of their assumptions.

There are transit stops within walking distance, and a sidewalk is planned in a 2019 interchange reconstruction.

 

[jgailla]

What would a nursing home be?
I've had a few friends in nursing homes and homeless/disabled veterans facilities and I don't think more than a quarter at most were getting visited once a day even on weekends.

 

[ACtrafficengr]

This is what I get:

Description Units Daily trips
251 Senior Adult Housing-Detached DU 175 649
253 Congregate Care Facility DU 175 354
254 Assisted Living Occ. Beds 175 480
255 Retirement Community Occ. Units 175 492
620 Nursing Home Beds 175 649

 

[civilman72]

I can understand your concerns with 61 daily trips. That may not even be enough to cover the traffic associated with visitors (about 6:1 guests to visitors). It will be interesting to see their justification. Maybe they are assuming a very low occupancy rate?

 

[TerryScan]

One may do better finding a homeless shelter and doing an actual sample count of trips. I don't believe a HOMELESS facility is necessarily similar to other care facilities listed above (retired or aging). Will the facility be served by public transportation? A more pertinent factor may be the number of staff?

 

[ACtrafficengr]

We asked them to justify their assumptions. The organization has existing facilities in an adjacent state. Maybe they could do counts at those.