Requirement Area Review: Flexibile Study Area for Traffic Impact Assessments

New developments will contribute to increased traffic to the external environment. Therefore, the majority of nations, in planning and building regulations and guidelines have adopted steps to control them beforehand. Similarly, in Sri Lanka, new developments in the approval process should be undertaken, based on their legal specifications and through a Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA). Although the management of traffic from new developments is exceedingly positive, one of the problematic sectors noted in the TIA study is a fixed study area. Consequently, a 500 m buffer area from the proposed site edges is currently being taken as the study area in Sri Lanka. The geographical extent of the traffic impact area is not a fixed boundary. Particularly based on a set of parameters, the true catchment area could be changed. A fixed boundary may, therefore, misdirect developers, consultants and planning authorities in decision making in situations of transport planning. Owing to this very debatable selection, almost all studies have been incorrect. Consequently, this research focuses on investigating the requirement of flexible study areas for traffic impact assessments of distinctly unique developments.