Evaluation of video detection system as a trac data collection method

Abstract. Trac counts are one of the fundamental data sources for a variety of transportation applications ranging from assessment of current transportation system conditions to future transportation planning and forecasting. A variety of trac data collection methods have been used to provide continuous trac count coverage at selected locations to estimate annual average daily trac. This paper evaluates the performance of a Video Detection System. A video detection system was investigated under various conditions, including mounting style, height, and roadway osets. This paper conducts a lane-by-lane analysis and the results indicate that video detection system data presents reasonably accurate data, although these data exhibit more variability compared to Automatic Trac Recorder data. The paper provides an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the video detection system technology based data compared to the Automatic Trac Recorder data and helps in the decision process of whether to use the data for specic transportation planning and strategic decision applications.