Traffic Monitoring Guide

This edition of the Traffic Monitoring Guide (TMG) is intended to provide the most up to date guidance to State highway agencies in the policies, standards, procedures, and equipment typically used in a traffic monitoring program. The TMG presents recommendations to help improve and advance current programs with a view towards the future of traffic monitoring and with consideration for recent transportation legislation resulting from MAP-21. The needs for traffic data at both the Federal and State levels will continue to require that States have a well -designed traffic monitoring program to support all business areas. Traffic data and information is needed to assess current and past performance and to predict future performance. Improved traffic data, including data on ramps, is needed for reporting in the Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS) and there are now opportunities to utilize traffic data from Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to support coordination of planning and operations functions at the Federal and State levels. Improvements in traffic data collection technology since the publication of the TMG in 2001, has allowed States to improve their data collection processes and to streamline QA/QC procedures, thereby replacing manual procedures with new automated ones. New t echnology also now enables States to collect data on non-motorized travel including bicycle and pedestrian traffic. This new capability is addressed in more detail in Chapter 4. The use of non-motorized travel data and
information supports analysis regarding the impact to the transportation network (from a volume and safety perspective), resulting from the use of bicycles as an alternative method for travel compared to the traditional motor vehicle. The new technologies and procedures for traffic monitoring presented in this Guide are supplemented (in the appendices) with practical examples from actual State experiences in improving traffic monitoring programs.
The guidance presented in the TMG should be used to help States manage and improve their traffic monitoring programs, with consideration for overall business needs for traffic data and information.
Chapter 2 explains the importance of having a well-designed traffic monitoring program to support
typical business needs. This Guide is written to assist both experienced traffic data collection personnel and those who are less-experienced, or who are new to traffic data collection. Quick references to topics are available in the Index and may also be found in the Table of Contents. Other reference material that may benefit traffic data collection personnel and traffic program managers is found in Appendix M, References.
This edition of the TMG also includes new data formats as an option for reporting traffic data. These new formats are known as the Per Vehicle Formats for reporting volume, speed, vehicle classification, and vehicle weight data. Data formats are also provided for reporting non-motorized data for those States with capabilities to collect this type of data. This edition of the TMG has been developed with considerable input from State traffic data program managers and the vendors who design and build traffic data collection equipment. This approach has resulted in a guidance document that FHWA anticipates will continue to be beneficial to States in improving their business processes, technology, and equipment used to successfully manage their traffic monitoring programs.