Summary Report on Evaluation of Vehicle Detection Systems (0-2119-S)

Advances in non-intrusive vehicle detection systems and the well-documented problems with inductive loops provide strong incentives to pursue evaluation of loop alternatives. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is concerned about safety issues, costs and aggravation associated with the current vehicle detection systems that it uses for collecting both historical and real-time data. These concerns include: exposure of employees to traffic costs of lane closures to maintain loops damage to pavements through the loop cutting process, and the inflexibility of loops (e.g., where lanes shift).