Establishment-Based Survey of Urban Commercial Vehicle Movements in Alberta, Canada

Abstract

This paper describes a project to develop a more complete understanding of the nature of urban commercial vehicle movements in the Calgary and Edmonton regions, the two principal urban regions in the province of Alberta, Canada, each with a population near 1 million. It covers the design and implementation of the survey and an overview of the results. Slightly more than 3,000 business establishments in the Calgary region and 4,300 business establishments in the Edmonton region were interviewed concerning the commercial movements that they generated on an assigned survey day. The surveys were performed in fall 2000 in the Calgary region and in fall 2001 through spring 2002 in the Edmonton region. The survey was done to obtain indications of the full range of commodities being transported, including goods and services, together with descriptions of the associated person and vehicle movements arising with this transportation activity. The establishment-based process used was analogous to the household-based approach used in personal travel surveys. Results show that in the two regions commercial vehicle movements are an important component of all vehicle movements on a typical weekday—representing about 12% of vehicle distance traveled. There are more movements for services than there are for goods and more by light commercial vehicles (passenger cars, vans, and pickup trucks) than by heavier vehicles. About 30% of all commercial stops in a typical weekday are for service deliveries, compared with about 25% of stops for transportation and handling services.