Overall information was collected for 619 truck movements and matches were determined for 370 truck movements (or 185 observed pairs) representing approximately 60% of the full collected sample. When questionable matches, school buses and pickup trucks as well as 20 trucks that were observed making multiple entrances or exits to/from the Town were removed, origin, destination and duration data was collected for 169 trucks.
As the purpose of the study was to determine the number of trucks traveling through the town, 20 of the 169 trucks were removed from the data set as they entered and exited the town from the same end of Highway 12. Thus, the total confirmed truck volume traveling through the Town during the nine hour survey period was 149 trucks, which were further separated into 74 eastbound and 75 westbound trips and are illustrated in Exhibit 1.
A further objective of the study was to determine the amount of truck traffic that travels through Lacombe both with and without stopping, thereby identifying the likely volume of trucks that could potentially be diverted away from the downtown core if a by-pass route was to be provided. To sort the collected data into these two categories, a reasonable travel time through town needed to be established to sort the data. The actual travel time through the survey area at the time of the survey was measured as approximately six minutes, and the observations between the survey teams were determined to be +/- three minutes. In reviewing the summary of the data collected, and the potential types of activities that stopped traffic would undertake within the Town, a value needed to be chosen that would differentiate between a truck that traveled through the Town on Highway 12 and a truck that stopped within the Town. Examples of activities that could be reasonably associated with stopped trips included the following:
· Service stations.
· Pick-up/delivery of goods.
· Accommodation.
· Restaurants.
· Rest Stops.
In review of these activities, a value of 15 minutes was chosen to sort between truck traffic that did and did not stop while traveling through town. By applying the 15 minute criteria, 120 or 80% of the 149 trucks were determined to travel through the Town in less than 15 minutes as shown in Table 1 and illustrated in Exhibit 2. Of the 120 trucks that passed through town in less than 15 minutes, 24 or 20% were observed to be gravel trucks.