Traffic matters. If cars are driving past your restaurant, drivers may notice it and decide to stop for some food. If cars are driving past someone else’s restaurant, chances are the folks in them are not thinking of your establishment.
Your goal should be to open where a lot of people can see your restaurant at the times you are most likely to be busy. However, following this simple advice can become a bit complicated. It involves specific types of traffic counts pinpointed to the times of day that you are planning to serve.
Traffic counts are very important numbers. For instance, you would not want to put a breakfast-_focused restaurant in an area that has no morning traffic. You would also not want to put a bar in an area that has little traffic after four in the afternoon.
Sadly, many new restaurants make location decisions based upon traffic count alone. They fail to realize that when the traffic occurs is more important than how much traffic occurs. Therefore, traffic count data on an hourly basis is significantly more important than daily counts.
Traffic flow is also crucial information. Understanding the traffic, its origin, and its destination is very important. For example, traffic could be huge going to a sports arena during certain dates and times, but that doesn’t mean any of the people who are going to the game are inclined to stop at your hot dog stand along the way.
What is a good traffic number and what is a bad traffic number? Depending on your state, region, and community, traffic numbers vary greatly, so you must do some research.
Examine your area in great depth and detail. Get as much input from as many people and sources as you can. Remember, information is power. Compare, compare, and then compare some more. Then do some thinking. What is right for your particular needs? You can figure this one out.
Talk to real estate agents about traffic counts throughout your city or area and contact the city planning commission to find out which intersections have the highest and lowest traffic counts and which roadways are the most and least used. Stop in at the city and county road-works building and ask them for traffic data. They will have it readily accessible or will know where to send you to get it.
Before long you will get a feel for what is a high, low, or mediocre traffic count number for your community. Then lean towards the higher numbers if everything else is equal.
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