Two parallel rubber lines on the road
Discussion
Have appeared near my village. There's a little box chained up to a nearby post. I presume it's gathering speed/traffic volume data.
What's the full story? It's placed on a 1 mile stretch between two 40 limits and is NSL. Does this mean they're fishing for evidence to senselessly connect the limits?
SM
What's the full story? It's placed on a 1 mile stretch between two 40 limits and is NSL. Does this mean they're fishing for evidence to senselessly connect the limits?
SM
It's a traffic counter. Depending on how many there are in the area, they can do a number of things.
If they've appeared on all the roads into and out of the village (or another nearby settlement), then they're building up a model of traffic movements in the area. This is generally used for the development of concepts for a future road scheme, or to gauge the effect of upcomming or recent minor road tweaks.
If they're on their own, and the rubber tubes are more than about six inches apart, then it's probably recording traffic speed statistics for that particular location (for this application they're typically a few feet apart). In this case it's probably an overture to scameras being installed on the road.
If they've appeared on all the roads into and out of the village (or another nearby settlement), then they're building up a model of traffic movements in the area. This is generally used for the development of concepts for a future road scheme, or to gauge the effect of upcomming or recent minor road tweaks.
If they're on their own, and the rubber tubes are more than about six inches apart, then it's probably recording traffic speed statistics for that particular location (for this application they're typically a few feet apart). In this case it's probably an overture to scameras being installed on the road.
I used to work for North Somerset council transport dept (great bunch of guys) and place these in and around Weston Super Mare.
They are generally put down to measure traffic volumes on certain roads and into and out of certain 'boundaries'. The data is collected and generally saved but not a lot is done with it except I think it's used for annual reports, showing whether traffic entering a town has gone up or down each year etc. They can be set to attempt to tell the difference between lorries, cars and even bikes. They count traffic and can record how many cars per hour passed and in what direction. They can record speed (ours output the number of cars travelling between 20-30mph, 30-40mph, 40-50 and so on) as well but councils don't have much use for this (well ours didn't). We did occasionally put them down to measure vehicle speeds if someone had been complaining a lot about people speeding past their house. People said that everyone came through the 30 zone doing 70. The figures never bore this out, looking pretty normal with a few cars over 30mph.
The police lay their own ones which the council is nothing to do with. I think they do it more for speed measurement, for when thinking about using speed cameras/mobile cameras etc? The devices aren't foolproof but give a rough idea of general vehicle speed with some errors.
They are producing radar ones now which attach to a lamppost and don't need the lines across the road. We trialled these, they were ok but sometimes had trouble distinguishing between 2 cars close together, thinking they were one big lorry. They would pick up bicycles too. I spent a happy sunny day cycling along the road on a Brompton while we tested how well it picked me up! It even measured my speed!
.
They are generally put down to measure traffic volumes on certain roads and into and out of certain 'boundaries'. The data is collected and generally saved but not a lot is done with it except I think it's used for annual reports, showing whether traffic entering a town has gone up or down each year etc. They can be set to attempt to tell the difference between lorries, cars and even bikes. They count traffic and can record how many cars per hour passed and in what direction. They can record speed (ours output the number of cars travelling between 20-30mph, 30-40mph, 40-50 and so on) as well but councils don't have much use for this (well ours didn't). We did occasionally put them down to measure vehicle speeds if someone had been complaining a lot about people speeding past their house. People said that everyone came through the 30 zone doing 70. The figures never bore this out, looking pretty normal with a few cars over 30mph.
The police lay their own ones which the council is nothing to do with. I think they do it more for speed measurement, for when thinking about using speed cameras/mobile cameras etc? The devices aren't foolproof but give a rough idea of general vehicle speed with some errors.
They are producing radar ones now which attach to a lamppost and don't need the lines across the road. We trialled these, they were ok but sometimes had trouble distinguishing between 2 cars close together, thinking they were one big lorry. They would pick up bicycles too. I spent a happy sunny day cycling along the road on a Brompton while we tested how well it picked me up! It even measured my speed!
. Edited by pentoman on Tuesday 27th February 15:38
Andrew D said:
It's a traffic counter. Depending on how many there are in the area, they can do a number of things.
If they've appeared on all the roads into and out of the village (or another nearby settlement), then they're building up a model of traffic movements in the area. This is generally used for the development of concepts for a future road scheme, or to gauge the effect of upcomming or recent minor road tweaks.
If they're on their own, and the rubber tubes are more than about six inches apart, then it's probably recording traffic speed statistics for that particular location (for this application they're typically a few feet apart). In this case it's probably an overture to scameras being installed on the road.
If they've appeared on all the roads into and out of the village (or another nearby settlement), then they're building up a model of traffic movements in the area. This is generally used for the development of concepts for a future road scheme, or to gauge the effect of upcomming or recent minor road tweaks.
If they're on their own, and the rubber tubes are more than about six inches apart, then it's probably recording traffic speed statistics for that particular location (for this application they're typically a few feet apart). In this case it's probably an overture to scameras being installed on the road.
Nearly. The ones that I have used always have the tubes a metre apart, to differentiate vehicle types. They can do speeds as well but I've only used them for that once. The distance between the tubes does not necessarily disclose what they are being used for.
pentoman said:
I used to work for North Somerset council transport dept (great bunch of guys) and place these in and around Weston Super Mare.
They are generally put down to measure traffic volumes on certain roads and into and out of certain 'boundaries'. The data is collected and generally saved but not a lot is done with it except I think it's used for annual reports, showing whether traffic entering a town has gone up or down each year etc. They can be set to attempt to tell the difference between lorries, cars and even bikes. They count traffic and can record how many cars per hour passed and in what direction. They can record speed (ours output the number of cars travelling between 20-30mph, 30-40mph, 40-50 and so on) as well but councils don't have much use for this (well ours didn't). We did occasionally put them down to measure vehicle speeds if someone had been complaining a lot about people speeding past their house. People said that everyone came through the 30 zone doing 70. The figures never bore this out, looking pretty normal with a few cars over 30mph.
The police lay their own ones which the council is nothing to do with. I think they do it more for speed measurement, for when thinking about using speed cameras/mobile cameras etc? The devices aren't foolproof but give a rough idea of general vehicle speed with some errors.
They are generally put down to measure traffic volumes on certain roads and into and out of certain 'boundaries'. The data is collected and generally saved but not a lot is done with it except I think it's used for annual reports, showing whether traffic entering a town has gone up or down each year etc. They can be set to attempt to tell the difference between lorries, cars and even bikes. They count traffic and can record how many cars per hour passed and in what direction. They can record speed (ours output the number of cars travelling between 20-30mph, 30-40mph, 40-50 and so on) as well but councils don't have much use for this (well ours didn't). We did occasionally put them down to measure vehicle speeds if someone had been complaining a lot about people speeding past their house. People said that everyone came through the 30 zone doing 70. The figures never bore this out, looking pretty normal with a few cars over 30mph.
The police lay their own ones which the council is nothing to do with. I think they do it more for speed measurement, for when thinking about using speed cameras/mobile cameras etc? The devices aren't foolproof but give a rough idea of general vehicle speed with some errors.
This would reflect my experience as well.
I have just about given up trying to explain in the "new thread every month or so" on here that in most cases they have nothing to do with speeds. Too much inertial paranoia.
In the village where I used to live they had one of these jobbies inside the 30mph area (it was built up there so fair enough). When they analysed the data they found that every Tuesday at 3am someone would drive past at 65 or thereabouts. So next week there happened to be a police car there just by chance.
Was a fair use of the data as far as I was concerned
Was a fair use of the data as far as I was concerned
that's neat They're not great for speed readings because if 2 cars drive over it at once (in opposite directions) then it confuses things. So you often got readings of 80mph where it wasn't even possible. But obviously if it's just 1 car repeatedly in the middle of the night as stated above then it's going to be accurate.
You need to be driving over it at 100mph.
The bastards will measure the average speed, and drop the limit to whatever is 10% away from that average speed.
Don't go thinking that if you're doing 59mph they won't touch the limit. It works the other way, you need to be pushing the average speed up so they'll leave it alone.
Or you can just take a stanley knife to them, they work on pressure gradients
The bastards will measure the average speed, and drop the limit to whatever is 10% away from that average speed.
Don't go thinking that if you're doing 59mph they won't touch the limit. It works the other way, you need to be pushing the average speed up so they'll leave it alone.
Or you can just take a stanley knife to them, they work on pressure gradients
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