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12 <br /> <br />land use and transportation network information for the region. The model forecasted <br />morning and evening peak period traffic for all major roadways with the City. <br /> <br />Recent economic growth in the Bay Area has contributed to a rise in traffic volumes on <br />streets throughout the region and in Redwood City. Comparing traffic counts from the <br />last three years with traffic volumes from the General Plan EIR shows that some <br />segments have higher volumes than were projected in the EIR. In each instance where <br />this occurred, the recently collected traffic volumes do not represent a new or more <br />significant impact than was identified in the EIR. Table 5 below illustrates this using <br />Hopkins Avenue as an example since recent counts on Hopkins were quite different <br />from the volumes estimated in the General Plan EIR. <br /> <br />Table 5: Comparison of General Plan and Recent Traffic Volumes on <br />Hopkins Avenue (Hudson to Broadway) <br /> “Existing” <br />Volume <br />(2008) <br />“Project” <br />Volumes <br />(2030)2 <br />Recent <br />Traffic <br />Count3 <br />Volume <br />Threshold <br />for LOS E4 <br />Additional Volume <br />Required to Trigger <br />Impact (LOS E) <br />Average Daily <br />Traffic (ADT) <br />7,1001 --- 7,600 --- __ <br />AM Peak <br />Hour Volume <br />358 440 830 1,610 780 <br />PM Peak <br />Hour Volume <br />595 260 737 1,610 873 <br />1 Redwood City New General Plan Technical Report (September 2008). Figure 7: Roadway Segment Average Daily <br />Traffic Volume <br />2 Redwood City New General Plan Draft EIR (May 2010). Table 4.14-2 Existing (2008) Roadway Segment Levels of <br />Service Summary <br />3 Traffic counts collected March 2015 (Hopkins Avenue Traffic Safety Project). <br />4 Redwood City New General Plan Draft EIR (May 2010). Table 4.14-1 Roadway Segment LOS Thresholds <br />5 This hourly volume is unusually low for a roadway with an ADT of 7,100 vehicles. As a general rule of thumb peak <br />hour volumes are 10% of the daily traffic volume. <br /> <br />The last two columns on Table 5 above illustrate the volume threshold for level of <br />service (LOS) E as well as the number of additional trips required to trigger LOS E <br />along this segment of roadway, which would be considered a new significant impact. <br />LOS A – D are considered acceptable levels of service, whereas LOS E and F are <br />considered unacceptable. If traffic goes from LOS A to LOS D, no new impacts are <br />triggered as these are both considered acceptable under the City’s thresholds of <br />significance. If traffic goes from LOS D to LOS E, a new significant impact would occur <br />and further environmental analysis would be required because of the change from an <br />acceptable level of service to an unacceptable level. Thus, for the Hopkins Avenue <br />example, it would take an additional 780 Peak AM trips or 873 Peak PM trips to lower <br />the level of service to LOS E and trigger additional CEQA analysis. <br /> <br />Travel demand models estimate changes in traffic based on existing travel volumes and <br />patterns, potential changes to the transportation network, and potential land use <br />changes. In spite of all the effort to make these models as robust as possible, they are, <br />at the end of the day, an approximation and staff expects them to underestimate <br />8.A. - Page 12