Traffic Surveying Explained: How Clicks Become Data

You have likely seen them while waiting at a red light: a person sitting in a folding chair on the corner, wearing a high-vis vest, holding a clipboard or a strange board with multiple silver clickers mounted on it.

They aren’t just watching the world go by. They are Traffic Surveyors, and the data they collect with those little tap counters is what decides how long your red light lasts, where the next bike lane goes, and whether your street gets a speed bump.

The Human Element in a Digital World

In an age of AI cameras and radar, why do we still pay humans to sit on corners and click buttons? Because machines are bad at nuance.

• A radar tube across the road counts axles. It can’t tell if that was two cars or one semi-truck.
• A camera might miss a pedestrian crossing against the light.
• Turning Movements: This is the big one. A machine knows a car passed, but a human with a multi-bank counter tracks: “Car A came from the North and turned Left.” “Car B came from the North and went Straight.”

This specific “turning” data is the secret sauce for programming Traffic Signal Phasing (the green arrow timing).

The Tool: The Multi-Bank Tally Board

A standard single clicker isn’t enough. Surveyors use a Counter Board. These are banks of 4, 8, or 16 mechanical counters mounted together.

Typical Setup for an Intersection:

• Counter 1: Cars going Straight.
• Counter 2: Cars turning Left.
• Counter 3: Cars turning Right.
• Counter 4: Heavy Trucks (Semis/Buses).
• Counter 5: Pedestrians/Cyclists.

The surveyor’s hands fly across the board like a pianist, tapping different buttons for different vehicles. It requires intense focus. A survey usually lasts 2 to 4 hours during “Peak AM” (7-9 AM) and “Peak PM” (4-6 PM).

How the Data Changes Your Commute

Once those thousands of clicks are recorded, they go into a spreadsheet. Traffic Engineers use this to calculate Level of Service (LOS).

• LOS A: Free flow. No waiting.
• LOS F: Gridlock. Breakdown.

If the clicker data shows LOS F for “Left Turning Cars” but LOS A for “Straight Cars,” the engineer will reprogram the traffic light to give the Green Arrow 10 more seconds and take 10 seconds away from the straight lane. Poof. Your morning commute just got 2 minutes faster, all thanks to a guy clicking a button.

Retail and Commercial Planning

It’s not just the government. Developers hire counting firms before building a Starbucks or McDonald’s.

• The Site Selection: “We need a corner with at least 15,000 cars passing per day.”
• The Counter: The surveyor validates this claim. If the count is only 8,000, the business won’t build there. Your favorite coffee shop exists where it is because a clicker proved the customers were there.

DIY Traffic Counting

You can use a simple tap counter app to analyze your own neighborhood.

• Speeding Complaint: Think people drive too fast or use your street as a shortcut? Sit on your porch for an hour with a counter. Count the cars at 5 PM.
• Data Wins Arguments: Going to the City Council and saying, “It feels busy” is ignored. Saying, “I counted 412 cars in one hour on a residential street” gets a stop sign installed.

Conclusion

Traffic counting is the pulse-taking of a city. It turns the chaotic flow of steel and rubber into neat, actionable numbers. It is a tedious job, but the manual precision of the tap counter ensures that our cities keep moving safely and efficiently.