By Jenn Rowell
Great Falls Tribune
The city is conducting its annual traffic count, in partnership with the Montana Department of Transportation and Cascade County.
Residents will see the counters — many look like hoses in the road — around town during July as the city collects traffic data.
Traffic counts are “the basic data for all transportation decisions,” said Andrew Finch, the city’s transportation planner. “If you ask someone what’s the most important statistic, they’re going to say traffic counts.”
According to MDT, the Traffic Data Collection & Analysis section is responsible for collecting traffic data on about 5,800 active short-term traffic count sites statewide. These counts, also known as coverage counts, make up the bulk of the department’s traffic count program. The continuous count program currently has a total of 99 permanent counters, 62 automatic traffic recorder sites and 37 weigh in motion sites throughout the state collecting traffic data on a daily basis. In addition to providing volume information, many of the ATRs and WIMs provide information such as vehicle length, classification, truck weight data and unbiased speed data.
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