Characterizing the Traffic Impact of Verticalization: Multimodal Trip Generation Rates in Residential Multifamily High-Rise Housing in Natal,Brazil

Abstract

Trip generation rate (TGR) is the most relevant indicator for measuring the traffic impacts of land developments. However, these kinds of studies are complex and scarce. Given the importance of verticalization in Brazilian urbanism and the limited number of studies of TGR for residential land use, a research gap has emerged. This research aims to investigate the TGR for high-rise multifamily housing in Natal, one of the capitals of the northeastern region of Brazil. Researchers completed manual counts of 28 buildings during morning and evening peak hours. The study employed both linear and log-log regression analyses to examine correlations between four independent variables—number of dwelling units, number of bedrooms, number of parking spaces, and total built area—and four dependent variables: “Vehicle,”“People-in-vehicle,”“Sustainable,” and “Total” trips. The results revealed strong predictive relationships, particularly for “Vehicle” and “People-in-vehicle” trips. In the linear models, the number of bedrooms and dwelling units were the most effective predictors, whereas in the log-log models, the number of bedrooms, dwelling units, and built area demonstrated superior performance. Overall, log-log models outperformed their linear counterparts. The study also showed evidence of the influence of the built environment on TGR. The results demonstrated the importance of TGR studies as a basis for a more sustainable urban development and its endemicity, which requires municipalities to develop their TGR databases.