An Overview of

Traffic Monitoring
Guide

Department of Transportation Engineering & Management

University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore
 Contents

 In
this Part we will have
knowledge about

 Data Collection Design

 Factoring traffic counts
 Freeway-expressway ramp
counting procedures
What is Traffic Monitoring
Guide?
A manual to monitor traffic for
various uses given by FHWA
 Why do we need to
monitor traffic?
 Trafficvaries over a number of different
time scales, including:
o time of day
o day of week
o season (month) of the year.
o Directional variation
o Geographic variation
 Research has shown that truck volumes
vary over time and space differently
than car volumes (Hallenbeck et al
1997)
Data Collection Design
ACCOUNTING FOR VARIABILITY
Integration of data collection
efforts
 The ability to simultaneously collect
all three types of traditional traffic
monitoring data is
called “nesting” traffic counts.
 Traffic data collected by other
agencies within the State.
 tracking of HOV lane usage
 traffic surveillance centers
 The Intelligent Transportation
Systems
 Advantages of
Integration
 Reduce the # of continuous data
collection sites

 Increase the # of data available

 Less Cost

 Caution!Care must be taken while

using this data
 Continuous Data
Collection
 Not being used in proper way

 As input for traffic management

 Used in real time and then discarded

 Ifused properly, quality of TMI can

improve.
Continuous traffic monitoring
data collection programs
 Automatic Traffic
Recorders
 Recorded on site as hourly volumes
by lane
 Downloaded periodically to a central
location
 Summary volume statistics : AADT,
AAWDT, seasonal adjustment factors, day-
of-week adjustment factors, 30th and
100th highest annual hourly volume as a
fraction of AADT, lane distribution factors,
growth trends
 Data from different ATRs is averaged
for getting representative factors and
 Locations for ATRs

 Locations selected to measure specific

trends:
o Monitoring movement accurately on a road of
particular importance
o Traffic activity on a larger group of roads by
monitoring on a single location.
 Historic locations
 Semi-random selection of locations
within specific categories of roads (e.g.
rural interstates E-W)
 Availability of power and/or
telecommunications access to locate the
 Continuous Vehicle
Classification
 Truck volume and load information
 Other information obtained: the size of
seasonal commodity movements, the
seasonal fluctuations in truck travel on
roads, trends in annual truck volumes on
specific roadways, day-of-week traffic
patterns for trucks as opposed to cars, the
lane distribution patterns of trucks.
 Axle and length classification for 13
classes
 Aggregate vehicle categories
 Locations for AVCs

 Length & axle classifiers can be placed at

different locations e.g. on freeway & rural
area respectively and then combined with
care.
 For specific pavement sections (LTPP
sites)
 For creating truck factors
 Weigh-In-Motion Sites

 WIM takes all three types of data

 Located upstream of enforcement
scales
 Semi random selection within the
area because equipment only works
accurately on level ground, with good
pavement, and with little or no
roadway curvature and are
expensive.
 These sites point to the most
Steps for determining
Continuous Count
Locations
 Short Duration Counts

 Largely revised each year

 Frequent and Occasional counts
 “Project Counts” for site specific
studies
 Statewide counts and project counts
combined give accurate and cost-
effective data
 This data is not the “design data”, it
requires day-of-week, seasonal and
other factors for adjustment,
 Short Count Program
Design
 Defining and overlaying the short
duration counting programs.
 Making the separate counts in an area
as “general coverage “ counts
 Collecting the data for most precise
needs only
 In general, these are taken under
consideration:
o counts taken to provide system
coverage
o counts taken to meet the HPMS needs
o counts for special needs studies.
§ Statistical sampling is done before
 Coverage Count
Programs
 These are data collection efforts that
are undertaken to ensure that “at
least some” data exist for all roads
maintained by the agency.
 The TMG recommends, as a general rule,
that each roadway segment be counted at
least once every six years
 The HPMS Sample
 Highway Performance Monitoring
System is a combination of complete
coverage for the NHS and other
principal arterials, and a structured
sample of roadway sections for the
remaining functional systems excluding
the rural minor collectors and local.
 A primary goal of the HPMS traffic data
collection effort is to provide a
statistically valid estimate of total
annual vehicle distance traveled (VDT).
 Other statistical samples data are also
collected
 Special Needs Counts

 Includes the data that are not part of

the HPMS or any other existing State-
specific sampling study
 Project counts are also done which
normally include sections with poor
pavement that require repair or
rehabilitation, locations with high
accident rates, sections that
experience heavy congestion, and
roadways with other significant
FACTORING TRAFFIC
COUNTS
 Common Necessary
Adjustments
 Time-of-day adjustments for counts that consist of less
than 24 consecutive hours (the TMG recommends 48-
hour counting periods)
 Day-of-week adjustments for counts that do not
measure traffic conditions for all days of the week
 Seasonal adjustments for counts that do not cover
periods long enough to account for variation from
month to month or season to season
 Axle correction adjustments for axle counts (such as
counts taken with a single road tube sensor) that do
not directly convert the number of axle pulses into
vehicle counts by vehicle classification.
 Recommendations for
Factoring
 There is not a single best method.
 Depends upon number of continuous
counters a State can afford to operate
and the extent of the roadway system
for which factors must be developed
and applied.
 Factors must be applied to short counts
 Factors should be developed to best
utilize available data collection
resources
 Factors should be developed separately
for total volume and for estimates of
volume for individual truck
Creation Of Factor Groups
 Assumption: temporal characteristics affect
all roads
 Note: Analyses need to be performed
separately for total volume factors and for
factors that are applied to volumes by
vehicle classification
 Factor groups are used to create temporal
variation factors to statistically convert
short counts to annual averages.
 Set of roads as a “group”, all group
members are similar in characteristics
 Data from sample of locations on roads are
collected and mean is taken
 The procedure assumes something so it has
The Factoring Process
(Assumptions & Errors)
 Defining the Groups

 Itis difficult to define groups of roads that

“are similar with respect to traffic
variation,” and the more “mathematically
alike” the factoring groups created from
the data, the more difficult it is to define
the attributes that determine which roads
belong to a given group.

 Example: Group is Rural interstate

Highway but the travel pattern is not
Measured Characteristic

 The grouping process is made more

difficult and error prone because the
appropriate definition of a “group”
changes depending on the
characteristic being measured.

 Example: Volume factor groups of

trucks VS computation of axle
correction factors
Selecting a representative
sample
 Itis very difficult to select a
representative sample of roads from
which to collect data for calculating
the mean values used as factors.

 The primary reason for this is the

location of continuous data
collection sites.
 Computation Of Factors
 The last source of error discussed in
this section occurs in the
computation of factors because the
datasets used to compute those
factors are not complete.

 Thisis mainly due to FAILURE of

collection devices
 HOW TO CREATE FACTOR
GROUPS
 The three techniques are:
o cluster analysis
o geographic/functional assignment of
roads to groups
o same road factor application.
§ Each of these techniques starts from
existing permanent counter data.
 The first step is to compute the
adjustment factors that will be used in
the group selection process
 Cluster Analysis

 Using least squares method most similar

sets of factors are determined.
 Most similar stations according to factors
are grouped and process is repeated
 Where to stop clustering process depends
on analyst e.g. not more than 5 factor
groups
 Next step is to assign each cluster the best
continuous counter data for which the
group fits.
 Geographic/Functional
Classification of Roads Factor
Groups
 Allocation of roads into alternative factor
groups on the basis of available knowledge
about traffic patterns.
 Available knowledge is usually obtained
from a combination of existing data
summaries and professional experience with
traffic patterns.
 The characterization of roadways using
functional class makes it easy to assign
individual road sections to factor groups and
also allows the creation of factor groups that
are intuitively logical.
 For each initial factor group, continuous
 Geographic/Functional
Classification of Roads Factor
Groups
 Example
 urban Interstates and expressways
 other urban roads
 rural Interstates
 other rural roads in the eastern
portion of the state
 other rural roads in the western
portion of the state
 recreation routes.
Same Road Application of
Factors
 This process assigns the factor from a
single continuous counter to all road
segments within the influence of that
counter site
 The boundary of that influence zone is
defined as a road junction that causes
the nature of the traffic volume to
change significantly.
 The short count in question must be
taken on the same road as the
continuous counter.
 Limitations: More counters or less roads
are required
 ALTERNATIVES TO
FACTORING
 Appropriate where factor groups are
not readily known and the annual
traffic estimate must be very
accurate.
 Taking week-long counts removes the
day-of-week variation. Counting at
the same location four times at
equally spaced intervals removes the
majority of seasonal bias.
TYPES OF
FACTORS
For seasonal
adjustments,
some techniques
use monthly
factors, whereas
others
use weekly
factors. Both of
these techniques
can be
 Computation of Factors
(monthly factors)
 There are two basic steps in
computing the factors to be used:
computing the numerator and the
denominator.
 The numerator is assumed to be
AADT. The denominator is dependent
on the factoring approach taken.
 Computing AADT
 A simple average of all days: simple average
of all 365 days in a given year. Missing data
can cause biases
 An average of averages (the AASHTO
method): The AASHTO approach first
computes average monthly days of the
week. These 84 values (12 months by 7
days) are then averaged to yield the seven
average annual days of the week. These
seven values are then averaged to yield the
AADT. This method explicitly accounts for
missing data by weighting each day of the
week the same, and each month the same,
 Continued

where: VOL = daily traffic for day k, of day-of-week i, and

month j
i = day of the week
j = month of the year
k = 1 when the day is the first occurrence of that day of the
week in a month, 4 when it is the fourth day of the week.
n = the number of days of that day of the week during that
month (usually between 1 and 5, depending on the number of
missing data).
 Computing the
Denominator for Monthly
 An adjustment factor that converts
any weekday ADT for a given month
into AADT. This would convert
monthly average weekday traffic to
annual average daily traffic.
 Definition of weekday
 Example :(Monday to Friday), then
the denominator is the sum of all
weekdays (Monday to Friday) divided
by the number of days of data
present.
 Continued

 If the State chooses to compute an

average monthly day-of-week factor
(i.e., combining the monthly variation
and the individual day-of-week
variation), then the denominator is
the simple average of available daily
volumes for that day of the week for
that month.
 If the State decides to use a weekly
factor, the denominator is simply the
 Adjustments to Short
Duration Volume Counts
In general, a 24-hour, axle count, is converted to AADT
with the following formula:
AADThi = VOLhi * Mh * Dh * Ai * Gh
where
 AADThi = the annual average daily travel at location i of
factor group h
 VOlhi = the 24-hour axle volume at location i of factor group
h
 Mh = the applicable seasonal (monthly) factor for factor
group h
 Dh = the applicable day-of-week factor for factor group h (if
needed)
 Ai = the applicable axle-correction factor for location i (if
 Determining the Appropriate
Number of Continuous ATR
Locations
The basic assumption made in the procedure is that the existing
locations are equivalent to a simple random sample selection.
Once this assumption is made, the normal distribution theory
provides the appropriate methodology. The standard equation for
estimating the confidence intervals for a simple random sample is:
where

B = upper and lower boundaries of the confidence interval

X = mean factor
T = value of Student's T distribution with 1-d/2 level of confidence
and n-1 degrees of freedom
n = number of locations
d = significance level
s = standard deviation of the factors.
FREEWAY-EXPRESSWAY
RAMP COUNTING
PROCEDURES
 Problems Involved

 Portable counters are impossible to

install because of very less safety
 Two methods for counts can be
applied:
o Permanent Counters
o Counters on ramps
 Procedure

 Mainlinevolumes are known at two

points and all input/outputs are
measured between those two points.
The two boundary points are
normally ATRs or other instrumented
mainline locations that provide a
highly accurate measurement of
annual traffic volumes. These points
are used to control the counting and
adjustment process and are referred
Establishing Anchor Points
and count duration
 Each State will have to make its own
determination regarding the
appropriate number of anchor points.
As a general rule-of-thumb, the
recommended number of
interchanges between anchor points
is five.
 The minimum period recommended
for collecting ramp volume data is 24
hours. Ideally, all ramps between two
anchor points should be counted for
 In the next Episode…

 Vehicle Classification Monitoring

 Truck Weight Monitoring

 Format and supplement

 Coming Soon!!
End of Session one
A variety of traffic monitoring activities, including vehicle speed
monitoring, traffic management activities, toll collection devices, and
incident detection sensors, can provide traffic volume information.