Traffic Facts from WakeUpWalmart

The Real Facts About Wal-Mart's Traffic Impact

Walmart stores generate a significant amount of traffic congestion.

• Walmart stores can put a lot of new car traffic on the roads. An average-size Walmart Supercenter will generate nearly 10,000 car trips per day¹.
• Studies on the potential impact of Walmart expansion in three California cities, Milpitas², San Bernardino³, and Sonora⁴, found that it would have a “significant and unavoidable” impact on traffic near the store.
• Walmart stores also cause a major increase in truck traffic. A Supercenter often has between seven and nine tractor-trailers arriving every day, as well as one or two smaller trucks delivering goods from vendors. When a Walmart store is converted to a Supercenter, the store may see an increase of three tractor-trailer deliveries per day.⁵

Traffic generated by Walmart worsens air quality.

• In May 2009, a judge in San Bernardino County, CA overturned approval of Walmart’s plans to build a Supercenter in Yucca Valley, CA, stating that Walmart’s proposal underestimated the large amounts of greenhouse gas, dust, and ozone pollution that the store would generate⁶.
• A review of a proposed Walmart expansion in Fairfield, CA found that greenhouse gas emissions related to the expansion would have a “significant unavoidable impact⁷”.

Footnotes
1. Figure based on 1) the average Supercenter store size of 186,000 square feet, cited in Walmart Stores, Inc. Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2009 and 2) Institute of Transportation Engineers Trip Generation Rates, 8th Edition, for Free Standing Discount Superstores (ITE Code 813), reproduced online at http://www.mikeontraffic.com/2009/08/trip-generation-8th-edition-spreadsheet.html
2. “Draft Environmental Impact Report: Milpitas Walmart Expansion Project,” prepared for the City of Milpitas Planning and Neighborhood Services Department by Michael Brandman Associates, November 5, 2009, p. 2-16. http://www.ci.milpitas.ca.gov/_pdfs/plan_eir_walmart_expansion_deir.pdf
3. “Highland Avenue Walmart Expansion Project Environmental Impact Report,” Prepared for the City of San Bernardino by Michael Brandman Associates, October 15, 2009, pp. 2-2 and 2-3. http://www.ci.san-bernardino.ca.us/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=6903 NB: Since the draft document was so lengthy, it was incorporated by reference into the final version; only alterations to the draft text were present in the final version issued October 15, 2009. The document linked to here is the draft version, but the relevant sections cited were not altered in the final version
4. “Sonora Walmart Expansion Project: Draft Environmental Impact Report,” prepared for the City of Sonora Department of Community Development by Michael Brandman Associates, December, 17 2009. http://www.sonoraca.com/walmarteir.htm.
5. “Sonora Walmart Expansion Project: Draft Environmental Impact Report,” prepared for the City of Sonora Department of Community Development by Michael Brandman Associates, December, 17 2009. http://www.sonoraca.com/walmarteir.htm.
6. “Judge blocks Walmart's supercenter proposal for Yucca Valley,” Margot Roosevelt, The Los Angeles Times, May 16, 2009. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/may/16/local/me-Walmart16.
7. Draft Environmental Impact Report prepared for Fairfield, CA, March 2006, Chapter 2, p. 14. http://www.ci.fairfield.ca.us/files/Ch-2.pdf. Since the draft document was so lengthy, it was incorporated by reference into the final version issued later in 2006; only alterations to the draft text were present in the final version. The document linked to here is the draft version, but the relevant sections cited were not altered in the final version.

Source:  http://wakeupwalmart.com/facts/traffic.html