Over the last three years, Dakota County has become one of our larger clients at Traffic Data Inc.  We have an annual agreement with them so they can call us up and have us video/count intersections throughout the year.  They provide a list of about 60 signalized intersections they want counted for their signal timing program and then they sprinkle in intersection counts as questions/projects come up.

My friend Chris Chromy is the manager of the whole transportation services division for a good sized regional consulting firm, Bolton & Menk.  He told me yesterday about a corridor design project they’re doing for Dakota County.  We recorded video and did counts along the corridor in May for the county.  Bolton & Menk is using the 24 hour turning movement count data in their design process.  The county also gave them all of the intersection videos.

A question came up about gaps at one of the minor intersections controlled with side street stop signs.  Bolton & Menk staff pulled up the busiest half hour of video at the intersection, which they knew from the count data, and did a quick gap study.

This took them a grand total of 45 minutes of effort.  Chris said this was pretty amazing.  In the past, they would have had to call up Traffic Data Inc or get one of their staff people out to do the gap study during the evening rush period.  Not only did the video save them a couple of hours of real effort, but more importantly, they had the gap data the next day instead of waiting a week or two for it.

I love hearing stories like this about how the countCAM we developed is improving our industry.