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New York State Department of Transportation Works with Local Agencies to Reduce Duplicate Data Collection and Improve Data Analysis

Publication Year: 2017


Background

This case study highlights two noteworthy practices at the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) regarding traffic data collection agreements with local agencies and random sampling procedures to select short-duration traffic count locations. Through agreements with local agencies, NYSDOT provides traffic counting equipment and training in exchange for short-duration traffic counts. The agreement stipulates the minimum number of counts local agencies must conduct each year, a number equal to the breakeven point between the cost of the counters and cost of conducting short-duration traffic counts. The benefits of these agreements include reducing duplicate traffic data collection efforts and costs for NYSDOT while providing additional data and analysis to partnering local agencies. NYSDOT conducted a one-time project to collect short-duration counts on a random sample of local roads not typically counted as part of the traffic data collection program. This project supplements existing count data so that at least 10 percent of the local road mileage in each municipality has short-duration counts to support local road annual average daily traffic (AADT) data collection. Random sampling provides an unbiased method to select segments for short-duration traffic counts to increase the amount of measured AADT on local roads.

Read the Case Study New York State Department of Transportation: Engagement of Local Agencies in Traffic Volume Collection and Random Sampling Procedures for more detailed information.

Publication Year: 2017

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