What is the ITE Trip Generation Manual?

The ITE (Institute of Transportation Engineers) Trip Generation Manual is the industry-standard reference that provides empirically derived equations and average rates for estimating vehicle trips produced by various land uses. It is based on thousands of trip-count studies across North America.

What is the independent variable (IV)?

Each ITE land use has a specific size metric used in the regression equation — called the independent variable. For residential uses it is usually dwelling units (DU); for retail it is gross floor area (GFA) in 1,000 sq ft (KSF); for office it is GFA in KSF; for warehouses it is GFA in KSF. The tool labels the correct unit for each selected land use.

Are these figures exact or estimates?

These are preliminary estimates based only on the user's entered size, rates, and directional splits. Actual trip generation can vary with local transit access, mixed-use interaction, shared parking, and site-specific factors. A licensed traffic engineer should confirm figures for formal permit submissions.

Does this tool include ITE 12th Edition rates?

No. ITE rate tables, fitted equations, plots and descriptive statistics are licensed content. This tool provides calculation fields and common land-use templates; enter values from your own licensed ITE access, agency table or defensible local study.

What does the directional split mean?

Directional split describes the share of trips entering versus exiting the site during a peak hour. For example, a residential use in the AM peak typically has more vehicles exiting (residents leaving for work) than entering.

Trip Generation Estimator

Choose a land-use template, enter development size plus rates and entering percentages from your licensed manual, agency table or local study, then calculate daily and peak-hour vehicle trips.

Land Use Parameters

Land Use Group

Land Use Code (ITE)

Size / Intensity

Daily rate

AM rate

PM rate

Trips per displayed independent-variable unit. No proprietary rates are prefilled.

AM entering (%)

PM entering (%)

Rate source / edition (recommended)

Select a land use and enter its size to see trip estimates.

Daily Trips

—

vehicles/day

AM Peak

—

vehicles/hour

PM Peak

—

vehicles/hour

Directional Split

Period	Entering	Exiting	Total

Trip Volume Comparison

Preliminary multiplication of the displayed size by user-reviewable rates. This is not ITE TripGen and does not reproduce fitted equations, study ranges or descriptive statistics. Verify inputs in the official ITE resource or an approved local source.

Privacy: all entries and calculations stay in this browser; this tool sends no project size, rates or source note to a server.

Summary

Choose a land-use template, enter development size plus rates and entering percentages from your licensed manual, agency table or local study, then calculate daily and peak-hour vehicle trips.

How it works

Select a common land-use template and confirm its definition against your governing source.
Enter the independent variable — dwelling units, gross square footage, or acreage depending on the land use.
Enter daily, AM and PM rates from your licensed current source or locally approved study.
AM peak-hour, PM peak-hour, and average daily trip counts are displayed instantly.
Enter the AM and PM entering percentages; the exiting share is calculated as the remainder.

Use cases

Traffic impact studies for development applications.
Preliminary site planning to gauge infrastructure needs.
Rezoning analysis to compare trip generation between land use alternatives.
Transportation demand management studies.
Quick sanity-checks on consultant-prepared trip generation tables.
Class exercises and self-study for civil engineering students.

Frequently Asked Questions

Last updated: 2026-09-20 · Reviewed by Nham Vu