Select and describe the method and equipment you will recommend be used for traffic data collection for each of the road sections given below. Give reasons for your recommendations. (a) A private road leading to an industrial development (b) A residential street (c) A rural collector road (d) A section of an Interstate highway

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

(a) For a private road leading to an industrial development, which would likely be low volume and low speed, pneumatic tubes would be an appropriate choice. Concerns about impact of data collection method on driver behavior would likely be minimal on such a facility.
(b) For a residential street, which would likely be low volume and low speed, radar would be an appropriate choice as concerns may exist about the conspicuity of pneumatic tubes affecting driver behavior.
(c) For a rural collector road, where speeds and volumes may be somewhat high, radar would be appropriate. If expense were not substantial, machine vision would be worth considering.
(d) For a section of Interstate highway, given the high speed and high volume nature of the facility, it would be preferable to not have observers close the roadway. Therefore, methods such as machine vision or inductive loops (if an opportunity to temporarily close a lane is available) would be preferable. If observers can safely be placed, radar would also be acceptable.