Traffic Data Collection for Strategic Planning in Whistler, BC

Traffic Data Collection for Strategic
Planning in Whistler, BC

by Jane Farquharson, P. Eng. of Reid Crowther.

Whistler, located 120 km north of Vancouver, is home to one of the premier ski resorts in the world. Reid Crowther, in partnership with Ecosign Mountain Resort Planners, was engaged by the multi-stakeholder Transportation Advisory Group (TAG) in Whistler to develop a long range transportation plan for the internationally renowned resort. The project was awarded in the fall of 1996 and is expected to be completed by the summer of 1998.

One of Reid Crowther's tasks was to build a travel demand model to forecast future peak traffic flows. The project team knew this would be a challenging task, given the unique travel patterns and demands associated with the resort. At the outset of the study, it became evident that traffic and transportation data were limited solely to manual counts at major intersections with Highway 99, and Ministry of Transportation and Highways' count station data at two locations. In addition, the historical intersection count data were carried out on days which were not peak skier days, and did not, therefore, represent peak period turning movements.

There was no information regarding origin-destination patterns, trip purposes or auto-occupancies on which to build a credible model. Also, the TAG had identified many transportation issues, particularly those concerning parking, for which there was little or no historical data. Therefore, the TAG agreed that a major data collection program was required to support the development of a realistic "Comprehensive Transportation Strategy".

The project team developed an extensive data collection program, focused on a peak skier day in Whistler (Saturday February 8, 1997). This date was chosen because:

February historically has higher numbers of skier visits to both Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains;
It did not overlap with the Christmas holidays, when traffic patterns and volumes are atypical;
It did not overlap with an American long weekend, when skier volumes tend to be very high;
there was no major event at either mountain scheduled for that day.

The data collection program consisted of the following elements:

Intersection counts at most of the intersections on Highway 99 (by the Resort Municipality of Whistler)
Automatic count stations on Highway 99 and other roads in the municipality (by Resort Municipality of Whistler)
Three origin-destination surveys: one on Highway 99 just south of the Village, another on Highway 99 just south of Creekside, and a third on Lorimer Road. These included vehicle classification surveys in addition to the OD driver interviews (by subcontractor);
Lift base interviews at all five access lifts to both mountains;
Skier lot enter/exit counts and interviews at all parking lots;
Village public parking lot enter/exit counts, turnover, accumulation and interviews (MarketPlace and the Conference Centre);
Merchant surveys in the Central Village and Village North;
Employee surveys at five of the major employers (Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains, the municipality and two of the largest hotels).

The TAG played a major role in assisting the project team, by committing volunteers and mountain staff to perform counts and interviews. In addition, local high school students were employed to help with data collection. The Reid Crowther project team ultimately organized and trained over 80 people on the survey day on data collection and interview techniques.

February 8, 1997 proved to be one of the busiest days of the season, with over 18,000 skiers. Traffic volumes exiting the Village area in the afternoon peak period were very high, and significant congestion was observed. The counts and surveys themselves were well executed, with only minor difficulties. By the end of the day, over 4,200 interviews were carried out (this excludes the 1,065 employee surveys which were filled out by employees over a three week period). The project team obtained good response rates of between 9% and 21%, depending of the survey.

Summarized below are the project team's impressions of what went well, and what lessons we learned.

The data collected was processed, analysed and applied to the development of a multi-trip purpose traffic model, as well as improvement options related to roads, transit, and parking. The model has been invaluable in the testing of various future transportation scenarios for Whistler. The significant effort expended during the preparation for the survey day, the development of the survey forms, the organization and training of volunteers and staff, as well as the data entry and analysis proved to be well worth it, resulting in a solid base for transportation planning in Whistler.

The author wishes to thank the Resort Municipality of Whistler for permitting publication of this article.

What Went Well
Lessons Learned

Planning the survey forms very carefully, to ensure consistency between forms in the questions, compatibility with an electronic scanner, and relevancy to the objectives of the client. Origin and Destination questions were, by far, the most problematic because Whistler has so many short term visitors, who don't know the community very well. Interviewers should have been better trained in prompting interviewees.

Using Mountain staff and volunteers, as well as high school students, saved our client a significant amount of data collection costs. Training immediately prior to the survey period was beneficial since it remained fresh in people's minds. Because Whistler is a service-oriented resort, work travel patterns are very different from a typical municipality's. Just asking for one trip purpose ("Work") made it difficult to determine if the driver was travelling to, or from, work.

Having contacts within the major employers who were made responsible for ensuring a good employee survey response (prizes were offered by most of the employers). Group leaders sometimes estimated rather than actually counted the number of vehicles parked in each skier lot at the start of the skier lot surveys; this created problems back in the office during data analysis.

During training, appointing one person to be the group leader at each location, responsible for gathering all completed survey forms and ensuring all survey staff were diligent. In the Lift Base survey, the interviewers were advised to choose people randomly. However, it became evident during the data analysis that there was a natural bias to interview people older than driving age, so that drivers tended to be over-represented in the results.

Regular supervision of each survey by Reid Crowther staff, who were in constant contact by cellular phone. Avoid giving interviewers a set target for the number of interviews per hour - they tend to reach that target, and then stop!

Offering a cash prize for the high school student with the greatest number of surveys. Don't record three digits of the license plate in a parking turnover survey. We found very high percentages of double and triple plate matches.

Graph of Travel Modes

What Went Well	Lessons Learned
Planning the survey forms very carefully, to ensure consistency between forms in the questions, compatibility with an electronic scanner, and relevancy to the objectives of the client.	Origin and Destination questions were, by far, the most problematic because Whistler has so many short term visitors, who don't know the community very well. Interviewers should have been better trained in prompting interviewees.
Using Mountain staff and volunteers, as well as high school students, saved our client a significant amount of data collection costs. Training immediately prior to the survey period was beneficial since it remained fresh in people's minds.	Because Whistler is a service-oriented resort, work travel patterns are very different from a typical municipality's. Just asking for one trip purpose ("Work") made it difficult to determine if the driver was travelling to, or from, work.
Having contacts within the major employers who were made responsible for ensuring a good employee survey response (prizes were offered by most of the employers).	Group leaders sometimes estimated rather than actually counted the number of vehicles parked in each skier lot at the start of the skier lot surveys; this created problems back in the office during data analysis.
During training, appointing one person to be the group leader at each location, responsible for gathering all completed survey forms and ensuring all survey staff were diligent.	In the Lift Base survey, the interviewers were advised to choose people randomly. However, it became evident during the data analysis that there was a natural bias to interview people older than driving age, so that drivers tended to be over-represented in the results.
Regular supervision of each survey by Reid Crowther staff, who were in constant contact by cellular phone.	Avoid giving interviewers a set target for the number of interviews per hour - they tend to reach that target, and then stop!
Offering a cash prize for the high school student with the greatest number of surveys.	Don't record three digits of the license plate in a parking turnover survey. We found very high percentages of double and triple plate matches.