Mike on Traffic

Death of the 2-Hour Turning Movement Count

Just talked to a client of ours who asked for a quote to get a.m. and p.m. 2-hour turning movement counts at two intersections that are each controlled with stop signs (we do have a standard price list for our metro area - Download 2012 TDI Price List, but the project is about an hour and a half aways so we need to tack on extra travel charges).  Because we're counting with the COUNTkit video system now, we've changed our pricing structure quite a bit so it's not much more to collect counts from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. vs. just doing the traditional 2 hour morning/evening counts.

A 13-hour turning movement count from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. is so much more useful than 2 hour peak period counts - (1) you know you've captured the a.m. and p.m. peak hours and (2) you have data you can go back and do a traffic signal warrant analysis with (you can even choose to factor out some or all of your right turns in this analysis).

Let's expand our thinking to a 24 hour turning movement count - the above advantages plus you get daily traffic volumes on each leg of your intersection.

Or why not expand to a 48 hour turning movement count - the above advantages plus you can average your study periods to control for daily variation.

Or why not expand to a 120 hour turning movement count - the above advantages plus you can look at weekend data which may be crucial in a big shopping district or if you're near a large church.

So why are we still doing 2 hour turning movement counts?  It's a tradition that goes back to at least the first Highway Capacity Manual published in 1950.  When you're counting with people who are sitting at the corner, it gets very expensive to do turning movement counts for much more than a few hours.  Being practical engineers - our industry decided the cost/benefit means a few hours of data is typically good enough.  But its crazy to think we're making six or seven figure decisions based on one data point.

Now that we're in the 21st century - 2 hours isn't good enough anymore.  Shameless plug....

The turnkey COUNTkit system we've developed and sell at www.CountingCars.com changes our 60 year old cost/benefit calculation.  13 hour turning movement counts should be the minimum amount of data traffic engineers use for their analyses and 48 hour turning movement counts are justifiable.  Below is an 87 second video that explains the COUNTkit system and there's also a lot of information available at www.CountingCars.com.  And of course feel free to comment below or drop me an email at mspack@countingcars.com if you want to chat more about this.

 

Training Data Collection Technicians

The Florida DOT has a training program to teach their technicians how to collect data, quality control check it, and enter the data into their database/GIS system.  They train about 60 folks a year.  After about three years of offering this training course, FDOT prepared a report that analyzed the effectiveness of this class.  I have to admit, this sounds a lot more intense than the on the job training I put my folks through.

The report goes through "competency modeling" to assess what these technicians should know and then lays out a plan to appropriately train them.  The whole process is fascinating and looks like it could be applied to any training curriculum. Traffic techs and their employers should scan through the report.

I applaud FDOT for taking a step back to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of what they do.  If I worked at a large agency or firm, I would want them to evaluate employee performance and training in a similar manner.

p.s.  Thanks Don Gettner for sending this over.

How to Video on Installing Road Tubes for Traffic Counting

Director Max with his lead actor Dan are back for another how to video.  They demonstrate two methods for installing tubes on roads that have concrete curb and gutter.  First is our preferred method using a hammer drill and concrete anchors.  Second is a lower cost option where you just need a hammer to pound nails into the bituminous.  They also show how we use tape and nylon webbing to secure the tube in the middle of the road.

Portable Video Camera System - COUNTcam Demonstration Videos

Max and Dan did a great job putting together a couple of videos showing how our new camera system is installed.  Who knew the video editing class Max took in college would pay off?  Check 'em out.

To go along with the release of the videos, we have a special introductory price for the whole package you'd need to get started - check out www.CountingCars.com. 

New Turning Movement Count System - COUNTpad/PC-TAS from CountingCars.com

I alluded to our new turning movement count system in my post about 48 hour turning movement counts.  Below is a video that shows the complete office system (please forgive the shakiness).  This system has more than cut our labor costs in half over the last nine months. 

It's a very viable alternative to Jamar's count boards (more efficient than counting in the field) and Miovision (less costly because you own the system and aren't paying by the hour plus you get to keep all of the videos as .avi files on your system).  They're both still good companies, but the COUNTpad system provides a new third way to keep the billable time in your office while improving efficiency.

I'm also announcing my new online store CountingCars.com where we're selling this system, our COUNTcam portable video recording system, and all of the components we use in our data collection business.  I've partnered with Vehicle Counts to sell their PicoCount 2500 tube counter, which I've written about before. 

I'll be adding more (less shaky - I promise) videos at CountingCars.com showing how we install all of our equipment.  We have quite a few tricks to share.  Enjoy and stay tuned!

 

 

48 Hour Turning Movement Counts - How & Why??!!!????

Since I was an intern at Image Sensing Systems working with the Autoscope in 1994, I thought our industry should be doing turning movement counts with computers instead of people.  That's why I was excited to be an early adopter of Miovision who promised automated turning movement counts.  After working with Miovision for half a year, I figured out (1) they deliver accurate data, although we don't know it's truly automated and (2) they ate up my profit margin.

So after 16+ years of daydreaming about portable camera systems (good things take time and yes I should get a life), I built my own little camera system last fall.  We've worked out the bugs and have a reliable system that can be setup in about ten minutes at any intersection.  We can record for five straight days!

(Thanks to Kimley-Horn who took the photo of our system in action in Minneapolis.  We're on their team videoing 350 intersections this fall to re-time the signals in South Minneapolis.  We're currently videoing/counting 2000 hours worth of turning movement counts in downtown Minneapolis for Alliant Engineering and we're a month ahead of schedule.  Maybe we were a small part in helping Kimley Horn win the South Minneapolis project.)

We've recorded 350+ intersections already in 2011 and we've standardized on doing 13 hour counts (6 a.m. to 7 p.m.) while drastically lowering our prices.  We have 30 portable camera systems and have found we can record 60 intersections a week (deploy Monday, record Tuesday, move Wednesday, and record Thursday).

So what about this post's headline?  TranSmart is doing a corridor study of Highway 52 for MnDOT south of Rochester, MN.  The initial scope called for about 50 tube counts and a.m./p.m. counts at 17 intersections.  I brought up the idea of doing our 13 hour counts instead, which I thought would get them good data for their corridor study (giving data for peak hour analyses as well as traffic control warrant analyses) and we'd be able to do it significantly cheaper than the initially requested data.

MnDOT liked the idea of the turning movement counts, but 48 hours of data is their "standard." We settled on a fair price for the 48 hour turning movement counts.  Deploying people to do the same counts would be radically expensive, which is why they were originally thinking mechanical tube counts even though the data wouldn't be as useful. 

Our testing showed we should have no problem recording 48 hours so of course I shot from the hip and said we could do it.  Even though we hadn't recorded anything longer than 24 hours for a project.  Happily it worked! 

So now we're going through a lot of hours of turning movement counts.  Over the next couple of weeks I'll tell you about our new hardware/system that allows us to toggle the video faster/slower while accurately counting (it still takes a person to do the counting, but this is a huge step forward from doing field counts with a jamar board).

We expect to do these counts at more than 5x real speed (the highway has 6000 cars a day and some of the cross streets have 300 cars a day - which would be painfully slow at real speed).

Over the next couple of weeks I'll also tell you about our new online store where we'll be selling all of the components to our system.  I just need to get the shipping pricing system set up - the joys of a small business owner!

Stay tuned....

Trip/Parking Generation Rates for an Urban Grocery Store

I'm preparing a traffic study for the proposed 25,700 square foot Lunds grocery/liquor/pharmacy store at Hennepin/12th in downtown Minneapolis.  We would typically use the Institute of Transportation Engineers' reports (industry standard data sets) to help us forecast the amount of parking needed at the site as well as the amount of traffic that will be generated. 

Based on discussions with the city, we think the standard data sets may overestimate the traffic/parking needs of the downtown grocery store since the existing data sets are largely based on suburban locations.  Lunds has another urban grocery store on the edge of downtown Minneapolis on Central Avenue.  Here is the data table from a p.m. peak hour study of that existing urban grocery store (Download Parking-Trip Generation at Central Lunds).

We found slightly lower peak hour trip generation rates and significantly lower peak period parking rates compared to the Institute of Transportation Engineers' reports.  This makes sense at an urban grocery store.  They still have a good volume of customers, but those customers are making a quick stop in for a few items and then getting out as fast as possible.  At more suburban grocery store locations, we'd expect patrons to buy more and stay longer.  Suburban grocery stores aren't as well set up for convenience stops.

New Duct Tape for Tube Counts

A couple of years ago I wrote about how much we like Gorilla Tape for securing our tubes to the road.  Ryan Elliott from URS in Indiana let me know they've found an alternative - Polyken 231 Military Grade Duct Tape.  I ordered a case and it looks great, but we haven't been able to use it yet due to the cold/snowy/wet winter (we use nylon straps and nails to secure the middle of the tubes in cold weather). 

Polyken 231 appears to be the same quality duct tape as Gorilla Tape at about 2/3 the price (can be even cheaper if you buy big quantities).  Check out this link at findtape.com for Polyken 231 Military Grade Duct Tape.  Thanks Ryan for the tip!

PicoCount 2500 Issues Resolved

A few weeks ago I posted a review of the PicoCount 2500 pneumatic traffic counter.  The folks at Vehicle Counts have figured out the issue and sent out the following recall notice.  I've been impressed with their customer service and am glad that they've tracked down the problems I wrote about.

We have been getting reports of our PicoCount 2500 counters failing in the field.  Upon receipt of these units we found that the battery had been drained.  It has taken awhile, but we have finally traced the problem to improper cleaning of the boards in assembly.  Trapped impurities were causing a short inside the units which eventually drains the battery.  Since our units are potted for life, the only solution is to replace the units affected by this assembly mistake.  

This condition applies to any units built prior to serial number 10051063.

Your units have been identified as the units from the bad run of assemblies.  Even though the counters may be operating okay now, they could fail without warning at any time.  We have built into the latest release of TrafficViewer Pro a test of the counters that might give you a warning of an impending failure, so at least you can catch it before putting it out for a study and having it fail.

We are in the process of replacing all units that are suspect of containing the production flaw.  Simply send them to us and we will immediately replace them.  Your units are covered by a 10 year warranty, this is a warranty replacement, and the new units will continue your warranty.

We apologize for any inconvenience this unfortunate problem may have caused.

Bill Rochat & Ian Rochat
VehicleCounters.com

Pico Count 2500 - Traffic Counter Review

We've landed quite a few projects this year doing daily traffic counts for MnDOT's state aid program.  All we need to provide are 48 hour volumes at a single point - the most basic of all traffic counts.  Up until now, we've bought Jamar counters that can collect volumes, speeds, classifications, and gaps.  Based on our workload, I went searching for a cheap alternative (most brands charge $1,000+ per counter and also charge for their downloading software).

I came across Vehicle Counts as a possible low cost solution.  Their counters are quite different from Diamond, MetroCount, Jamar, etc.  The Vehicle Counts products are always on and aren't programmable.  You just plug in a tube or two tubes and it records axle hits.  Then you download the axle hits into the free software and it translates the axle hits for you into any of the data you'd want. 

The $420 (cheaper if you buy in bulk) PicoCount 2500 counters have two ports (so you can collect directional data) and they collect volume, speed, classification, and gap data.  We bought five of them.  We also bought the count buddy stick, which you use in the field to verify the counter is recording axle hits (it lights up to show you the counter is working and then it has an LED for each port that lights up when it has an axle hit).  You buy one $99 count buddy to use with all of your counters, where other brands of counters build that functionality into each counter (which costs more).

As you can see in the pictures, they're radically smaller than the Jamar counters.  My field guys love that about the counters.

Product Review

We bought five counters and tested them with our jamar count tester.  They all worked according to our tests.  Then we put them out in the field.  One died in week one and a second died in week two.  We sent them back to Vehicle Counts (at their cost) and they over-nighted us replacement counters each time.  Their not sure why these two died, which makes me a little nervous.  I get the impression we're their second or third client and are guinea pigs.  Also, one end of the count buddy pulled out.  We super glued it back together and it keeps working.

For the last two months, everything's worked perfectly.  The data looks very accurate in our comparisons and the counters are easy to use.  All of this at less than half the price of most other counters and they're easier to deploy in the field.  I almost gave up on them (and that's why I didn't write about them immediately), but their customer service has been amazing and they seem to have their bugs worked out.  If you're in the market for some new road tube counters and you only need two ports for tubes, I recommend them.