VDOT conducts traffic counts along Greene County roads

By April Taylor, Record Editor
Published: July 3, 2008

If you’re driving in Greene and notice peculiar looking devices along the roadside —and what appears to be black strips strung across the roadways - don’t be surprised.
  These are devices put in place by Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), as part of a scheduled traffic count.
Such counts are done periodically to determine traffic volumes on the roadways, says VDOT spokesman Lou Hatter. The results become part of VDOT’s Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) database.
Every state-maintained road in the Commonwealth is part of this huge database that tracks AADT.
Depending upon the type of road, the traffic counts are done on three, six or twelve year cycles, Hatter explains.  The counts that are being done this year are part of the six-year cycle.
In addition to the six-year cycle counts, gravel roads are typically done on three year intervals; some road, such as dead ends or built-out subdivisions, are done on 12-year cycles.
There are roughly 175 locations in Greene County where traffic will be counted this year, says Hatter.
“It might be more than one location on a single road, so it’s not 175 roads, it’s 175 locations,“ he explains.
A 24-hour sample is taken at all of the locations.
Hatter estimates that it will take between four to six weeks to complete the counts, depending on the weather.
The traffic data is a planning tool, used to forecast volume increases over time. Developers often look at this type of information when researching a certain area. Such data also helps to determine the potential need for road upgrades, says Hatter.
  The information being collected now becomes part of the 2008 traffic data available to the public on VDOT’s website at http://www.virginiadot.org .