Vehicle Counts

Access the Data

Why Do We Count?

The Office of Travel Monitoring performs vehicle counts for one of several reasons:

• PennDOT contracts with DVRPC to perform annual counts in PennDOT’s District 6, consisting of upwards of 1500 counts;
• project counts for District 6 that are not part of the annual PennDOT request;
• counts to help calibrate and maintain the travel demand model and for a 5 year travel trends report;
• project counts for DVRPC project managers as they are needed.

Type of Counts

• Volume

  Total volume on a segment of roadway in either an hourly or 15 minute interval.

• Class

  A count on a segment of roadway that differentiates between the different types of vehicles that have passed over the counter tubes. A completed count will have all 13 FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) classifications. These classifications range from motorcycle to segmented tractor trailer.

• Speed

  Using ATR the approximate speed of passing vehicles can be determined, with an average speed being calculated.

• Manual Class

  A class count that is conducted on site for a road segment during a 6 hour period either 6 am to noon or noon to 6 pm. This classification uses a 16 vehicle type identification schema provided by PennDOT.

• 8 Day HPMS Sample

  An 8 day count at DOT specified locations to collect vehicle volume samples for HPMS reporting.

• Turning Movement

  A count of vehicles making all the movements, or turns, in and through an intersection. This count is conducted either manually at the intersection or video recorded and transcribed at a later time.

Additional Definitions

• Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT)

  An estimate of all the traffic during a 24-hour period at the location indicated for the year in which it was collected.

News