NRA Traffic Counters

Amtmann · 07-04-2009 2:10pm #1

Does anyone know how these operate, and where, specifically, they are located? What do they look like?

mysterious · 07-04-2009 2:34pm

Furet wrote: »

Does anyone know how these operate, and where, specifically, they are located? What do they look like?

They are placed on the road where lines appear going across the road. The lines are box shape with an x going within the box. It's wires of some sort with tar over it. You see them on many city road junction's. The wheels of the cars go over the wires and it automatically counts them.

On the N7 I can see the counter locations, from lookng at the road. They are re affirmed to me, when I look at the counters on the NRA site, i.e I see there is one at Pike rush Hall, I'm on the road and there it is.

Does this answer your question?

Amtmann · 07-04-2009 2:41pm

That's what I thought...I've seen those lines too.

L1011 · 07-04-2009 3:02pm

The Maynooth East set are alongside a site which was used as a depot for the construction of the road and later is/was used by KCC. No idea where the Maynooth West set are!

KevR · 07-04-2009 3:04pm

Was going to ask that same question.

On open road I think these boxes are traffic counters but at city junctions they are used as sensors for traffic approaching/waiting/queuing at traffic lights.

There are some that I've seen on open road around Galway but I've never seen traffic counts for these locations on the NRA website. They must belong to Galway City and County Council (both of whom don't seem to put traffic count data on their websites AFAIK)

G_R · 07-04-2009 7:50pm

by any chance is there one on the Athlone bypass that counts tractors

?

mysterious · 07-04-2009 8:03pm

Just now speaking of these counters, the NRA haven't updated there counter table on their site. Nor was the last update accurate.:rolleyes: July to October results on all counters are asswards.

I really am so underminded of NRAs ability to get anything right.

07-04-2009 8:14pm

There are a lot of these along most roads, they are used by traffic police to monitor traffic speed & density, if traffic was to suddenly slow over a sensor they could predict that an incident has occured and send someone out to investigate.

Yes! They could also count tractors, assuming it's going below 40kmh and on the hard shoulder, some roads have sensors there as well.

Amtmann · 23-04-2009 6:38pm

I think these are traffic counter sensors:

L1011 · 23-04-2009 7:19pm

Indeed they are.

HonalD · 23-04-2009 7:59pm

Deleted User wrote: »

There are a lot of these along most roads, they are used by traffic police to monitor traffic speed & density, if traffic was to suddenly slow over a sensor they could predict that an incident has occured and send someone out to investigate.

Yes! They could also count tractors, assuming it's going below 40kmh and on the hard shoulder, some roads have sensors there as well.

You are mistaken - Traffic police (in Ireland) don't use the traffic counting equipment at all. The units on NRA roads are run by the NRA with assistance from local authorities and those on local roads fall under the control of the local authority. (But monitoring is possible in Ireland)

The lines are inductive loops which can measure the speed and classification of vehicles crossing over them. They are a very useful tool and the NRA has counter information on their website.

Downsides are that they are poorly maintained (I do not know of any calibration surveys to check if the counters are counting correctly) so the comment about the quality of data on the website is valid.

Also, the counters need a permanent power supply and either a telecommunciations modem (with GSm or GPRS inside) or.....wait for it.....it is the 21st century.....a member of staff to drive to the site, plug in a pc/handheld unit and download the data manually...............................if anyone has a photo of said member of staff - post it NOW I'm sure we'll all be delighted to see proof of this technological feat! :rolleyes:

godtabh · 23-04-2009 8:07pm

Counter Locations

23-04-2009 8:21pm

HonalD wrote: »

You are mistaken - Traffic police (in Ireland) don't use the traffic counting equipment at all. The units on NRA roads are run by the NRA with assistance from local authorities and those on local roads fall under the control of the local authority. (But monitoring is possible in Ireland)

The lines are inductive loops which can measure the speed and classification of vehicles crossing over them. They are a very useful tool and the NRA has counter information on their website.

Downsides are that they are poorly maintained (I do not know of any calibration surveys to check if the counters are counting correctly) so the comment about the quality of data on the website is valid.

Also, the counters need a permanent power supply and either a telecommunciations modem (with GSm or GPRS inside) or.....wait for it.....it is the 21st century.....a member of staff to drive to the site, plug in a pc/handheld unit and download the data manually...............................if anyone has a photo of said member of staff - post it NOW I'm sure we'll all be delighted to see proof of this technological feat! :rolleyes:

Typical half-arsed Irish solution!

23-04-2009 8:27pm

kearnsr wrote: »

Counter Locations

Are you sure that's the right link? it links to a future traffic forcast report, or is the info buried within that report!

HonalD · 23-04-2009 9:41pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Are you sure that's the right link? it links to a future traffic forcast report, or is the info buried within that report!

http://www.nra.ie/NetworkManagement/TrafficCounts/TrafficCounterData/

godtabh · 23-04-2009 9:53pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Are you sure that's the right link? it links to a future traffic forcast report, or is the info buried within that report!

edited

KevR · 24-04-2009 12:58pm

HonalD wrote: »

You are mistaken - Traffic police (in Ireland) don't use the traffic counting equipment at all. The units on NRA roads are run by the NRA with assistance from local authorities and those on local roads fall under the control of the local authority. (But monitoring is possible in Ireland)

The lines are inductive loops which can measure the speed and classification of vehicles crossing over them. They are a very useful tool and the NRA has counter information on their website.

Downsides are that they are poorly maintained (I do not know of any calibration surveys to check if the counters are counting correctly) so the comment about the quality of data on the website is valid.

Also, the counters need a permanent power supply and either a telecommunciations modem (with GSm or GPRS inside) or.....wait for it.....it is the 21st century.....a member of staff to drive to the site, plug in a pc/handheld unit and download the data manually...............................if anyone has a photo of said member of staff - post it NOW I'm sure we'll all be delighted to see proof of this technological feat! :rolleyes:

I always thought it would be useful if they had these things churning out real time traffic counts which could be viewed on a website. Would be good to be able check a website before setting out on a journey and view how much traffic has travelled on the road in the last 15/30/60 minutes. Would be better than any traffic report.

Even better, for motorways, have traffic counters at all entrances/exits and it could then be determined exactly how many cars are on the entire motorway at any given moment. Some additional counters on the mainline between junctions would give a breakdown of which sections are busiest. Anyone else think something like this could be very useful on the M50 for example?

godtabh · 24-04-2009 4:41pm

KevR wrote: »

I always thought it would be useful if they had these things churning out real time traffic counts which could be viewed on a website. Would be good to be able check a website before setting out on a journey and view how much traffic has travelled on the road in the last 15/30/60 minutes. Would be better than any traffic report.

Even better, for motorways, have traffic counters at all entrances/exits and it could then be determined exactly how many cars are on the entire motorway at any given moment. Some additional counters on the mainline between junctions would give a breakdown of which sections are busiest. Anyone else think something like this could be very useful on the M50 for example?

I've seen/read about things like this in action.

In some freeways in America they have ramp metering which means that during peal peroids traffic isnt allowed onto the freeway till such a time there is sufficent capacity on the freeway. Cant remember what the study concluded but it was a decent read

markpb · 24-04-2009 5:22pm

kearnsr wrote: »

In some freeways in America they have ramp metering which means that during peal peroids traffic isnt allowed onto the freeway till such a time there is sufficent capacity on the freeway. Cant remember what the study concluded but it was a decent read

This book has a big section on ramp meters and the controversy surrounding them. It annoyed so many people that a politician passed an act turning them off. While they were turned off, traffic congestion got so much worse that people lobbied to have them turned back on again.

HonalD · 24-04-2009 5:58pm

KevR wrote: »

I always thought it would be useful if they had these things churning out real time traffic counts which could be viewed on a website. Would be good to be able check a website before setting out on a journey and view how much traffic has travelled on the road in the last 15/30/60 minutes. Would be better than any traffic report.

Even better, for motorways, have traffic counters at all entrances/exits and it could then be determined exactly how many cars are on the entire motorway at any given moment. Some additional counters on the mainline between junctions would give a breakdown of which sections are busiest. Anyone else think something like this could be very useful on the M50 for example?

Would people pay a charge for this? Tolls anyone...............................:o

Red Alert · 25-04-2009 8:29pm

The SCATS system in dublin which controls the traffic lights is capable of giving this sort of information too, but I'm not sure if it's published anywhere. They definitely do collect it though.

markpb · 25-04-2009 9:55pm

Red Alert wrote: »

The SCATS system in dublin which controls the traffic lights is capable of giving this sort of information too, but I'm not sure if it's published anywhere. They definitely do collect it though.

DCC used to publish a sanitized version of this information (it was used by a Java applet to show a congestion map) but it seems to have disappeared.

nordydan · 26-08-2010 9:04pm

I noticed on the NRA traffic counter website that the virtual directory can be searched. One of the folders contains a list of traffic counter data from 2006-2010 in individual csv files. A bit of VBA code has converted them all into a single worksheet.

Due to attachment size limitations on boards.ie, I have an external link to the data (zipped workbook) should anyone wish to browse. Interesting traffic counts around Xmas time, and the cold snap at the turn of the year - if you like stats (as I do, sadly :eek:)!

http://www.filefactory.com/file/b3149c5/n/TRAFFIC.zip

NRA Traffic Counters

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