How Much Vehicular Traffic Do Airports Generate?

Airports serve different regions and different economies. Some airports serve as an origin and destination (O&D) point to point system while others serve as a hub and spoke system. The type of airport and modes of transportation available to the airport cause great variations in traffic volumes on roads in the vicinity of the airport. In particular, O&D point to point airports have a profound effect on the local road infrastructure. Research documents very few studies to estimate the number of trips generated by airports. In the most current volume of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation Manual, only 3 commercial airports were analyzed to determine comparisons of employees, passengers, or airport demand versus trip generation. Anecdotal evidence indicates that estimates of number of trips generated by airports based on these studies are very different from the observed data. The focus of this paper is to research and study the relationships between airport type, airport demand, and traffic volumes. Data such as the type of airport, airport demand (total number of enplaning and deplaning passengers), total enplaned and deplaned cargo in tons, number of airline operations, number of employees, metropolitan area population, presence of large scale transit systems, the percent of connecting passengers, and traffic volumes along a major access road connecting arrival/departure gates at selected airports in the United States were collected and analyzed to study the relationships and develop equations to estimate the number of trips generated by the airports. The results from this research are expected to help planners and engineers better identify required infrastructure for improved traffic operations at existing and new airports.