Prepared by:

O. Tonkonojenkov, A. Hadayeghi, G. Junnor
Synectics Transportation Consultants Inc.

C. Mollett
Regional Municipality of York, Newmarket

Abstract
While there is a general recognition among road authorities that deriving reliable AADT values is critical to transport planning and road safety and operations management in their jurisdictions, there currently remains a gap in knowledge and diversity of opinions about the effectiveness and suitability of the AADT-producing methods being applied. This is one of the reasons why there is such a diversity of methods used in Canadian jurisdictions: they vary from simple “one day-day count - extrapolate AADT” to more sophisticated schemes like “short time counts during pre-determined seasons and periods – match to set of permanent counts – produce AADT”. In recognition of the central role of the quality of traffic data the York Region piloted Traffic Monitoring Strategy Study, aiming, among other goals, at: evaluating its current AADT producing routine with respect to other methods being applied in Canada and US and selecting a process that would be most acceptable to the York Region; testing the applicability of the selected process for the York Region and developing a migration strategy to embrace the proposed AADT-producing method in the York Region. The paper summarizes the existing AADT-producing routine being applied in the York Region along with the methods that are currently considered to be most effective in North America. Authors further describe the process developed to test the applicability of a selected AADT-producing methodology for the York Region and to develop a migration strategy and results of its application. It is anticipated that the paper will provide a valuable reference for the road authorities looking for improvements of their traffic monitoring programs.

For a complete copy of this paper, please contact: jsuggett@synectics-inc.net