Skip to main content

Upgrade for traffic counting system on Delaware bridges

The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission recently approved the purchase of new technology and software to replace the aging traffic counting system at the agency's 18 road bridges. The US$268,724 purchase of radar traffic counters, auxiliary system and software will be made from Signal Services of West Chester, Pennsylvania through the Pennsylvania Department of General Services COSTARS Program. The Commission collects traffic counts to make data-driven decisions related to budgeting, maintenance an
April 29, 2016 Read time: 2 mins

The 794 Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission recently approved the purchase of new technology and software to replace the aging traffic counting system at the agency's 18 road bridges.

The US$268,724 purchase of radar traffic counters, auxiliary system and software will be made from Signal Services of West Chester, Pennsylvania through the Pennsylvania Department of General Services COSTARS Program.

The Commission collects traffic counts to make data-driven decisions related to budgeting, maintenance and long-term capital improvements.  

The current traffic counting system is roughly 20 years old and uses an inductive loop detection system to count vehicles as they drive over the loops.  Collected data is stored on local servers at each bridge and daily traffic totals are then fed into a centralised database over land telephone lines.

The new system uses non-intrusive microwave radar technology coupled with new auxiliary equipment, servers and software to collect data, which will then be transmitted via cell tower technology to the central database.

The Commission believes the new system will improve reliability and accuracy and allow for easier maintenance.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Radar effective as detection tool for hard shoulder running
    July 23, 2012
    Navtech Radar's millimetric-wave systems are being researched on the M42 in England to look into how this type of detector can assist in the opening of the hard shoulder as an additional running lane. Here, the company's Stephen Clark talks about the technology being used. In England, the Highways Agency's (the HA, an executive agency of the Department for Transport) Managed Motorways system - formerly called Active Traffic Management - uses electronic signs and signals mounted on gantries to direct drivers
  • Priority for safety and interoperability, need for DSRC
    July 18, 2012
    Justin McNew, Chief Technology Officer, Kapsch TrafficCom Inc., USA offers his opinion of where 5.9GHz DSRC technology will head in the coming years. The debate ranges back and forth over the most suitable technological solution for future tolling and charging in the US. However, the coming trend is common cooperative infrastructure: instrumented roads and vehicles with the capacity to communicate with each other over all manner of safety, mobility and traveller applications, many of which will involve fina
  • Tollers make way as NextNav muscles into 902-928MHz spectrum
    July 30, 2013
    Toll operators and Progeny trade claim and counter claim about the potential ramifications of operating in the 902-928MHz spectrum, as Jon Masters finds out. Two months after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) determined that Progeny can start commercial operation of its NextNav location finding service, the dust has begun to settle. The tolling industry has had a chance to reflect on how this may impact its operations, in the knowledge that NextNav will share the 902-928MHz frequency band with RFI
  • Tattile part of Genoa bridge warning system 
    September 7, 2020
    WiM sensor and camera combination designed to prevent repeat of 2018's fatal collapse