A comprehensive study has been made of the goods vehicle traffic generation and attraction of a wide range of industrial and commercial firms using a postal questionnaire data collection technique. The report describes the development of the questionnaire, the selection of firms in three areas of England and an analysis of survey replies. The concept of the 'freight traffic intensity' of a firm is introduced. For analysis purposes, firms were amalgamated into twenty-four groups, chosen so that firms within a group had similar generation characteristics. The results of various regression and other analyses are presented. A comparison has been made between the derived trend lines and the results of an independent classified count of goods vehicle traffic into and out of an industrial estate within one of the study areas. The high level of agreement adds confidence to the accuracy of the results. A comparison is also made in the report with the published results of other studies. The use of the results for prediction purposes is discussed. Guidance is given on the accuracy of various possible methods. (Author/publisher)
Abstract