Traffic counts are one of the most traditional methods of collecting traffic data. They measure the number of vehicles passing through a point over a set time (e.g. 12 or 24 hours).

To be effective, counts should be:

• Categorised by vehicle type (cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, etc.)
• Broken into time intervals (hourly or 15 minutes)
• Collected across all approaches at intersections or roundabouts